Pleasure for visual and olfactory stimuli evoking energy-dense foods is decreased in anorexia nervosa.
Although patients with anorexia nervosa have been suggested to be anhedonic, few experiments have directly measured their sensory pleasure for a range of food and non-food stimuli. This study aimed to examine whether restrictive anorexia nervosa (AN-R) patients displayed: i) a generalized decline in sensory pleasure or only in food-related sensory pleasure; ii) a modification of hedonic responses to food cues (liking) and of the desire to eat foods (wanting) as a function of their motivational state (hunger vs. satiety) and energy density of foods (high vs. low). Forty-six female participants (AN-R n=17; healthy controls (HC) n=29) reported before/after lunch their pleasure for pictures/odorants representing foods of different energy density and non-food objects. They also reported their desire to eat the foods evoked by the sensory stimuli, and completed the Physical Anhedonia Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory. AN-R and HC participants did not differ on liking ratings when exposed to low energy-density food or to non-food stimuli. The two groups also had similar physical anhedonia scores. However, compared to HC, AN-R reported lower liking ratings for high energy food pictures regardless of their motivational state. Olfactory pleasure was reduced only during the pre-prandial state in the AN-R group. The wanting ratings showed a distinct pattern since AN-R participants reported less desire to eat the foods representing both low and high energy densities, but the effect was restricted to the pre-prandial state. Taken together these results reflect more the influence of core symptoms in anorexia nervosa (fear of gaining weight) than an overall inability to experience pleasure.
Jiang
Tao
T
Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, Dijon, France. tao.jiang@u
Soussignan
Robert
R
Rigaud
Daniel
D
Schaal
Benoist
B
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D009812:Odorants; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D057181:Pleasure; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult