title: Social reward and rejection sensitivity in eating disorders: an investigation of attentional bias and early experiences.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  People with eating disorders (EDs) have difficulties with social functioning. One explanatory mechanism is a problem with over-sensitivity to rejection and/or low sensitivity to social reward. The aim of this study is to investigate attentional bias to facial stimuli in people with a lifetime diagnosis of EDs and healthy controls (HCs) and to test whether these attentional biases are linked to adverse early experiences.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-six participants with a current diagnosis of EDs (29 with anorexia nervosa (AN) and 17 with bulimia nervosa (BN)), 22 participants recovered from an eating disorder (13 with past AN and nine with past BN) and 50 HCs completed a dot-probe task with faces expressing rejection and acceptance. Participants reported on parental style and adverse early experiences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  People with a lifetime diagnosis of EDs show an attentional bias to rejecting faces and a difficulty disengaging attention from these stimuli. Also, they had a sustained attentional avoidance of accepting faces. HCs demonstrated the opposite attentional pattern. The attentional bias to rejection was correlated with adverse childhood experiences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  People with an EDs show vigilance to rejection and avoidance of social reward. This may contribute to the causation or maintenance of the illness.
authors.affiliation: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychological Medicine, Section of Eating Disorders , London , UK.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cardi
authors.forename: Rosalia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Matteo
authors.forename: Freya
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Corfield
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Treasure
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012201:Reward; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult