Does postauricular reflex reactivity and self-reported emotional reactions to high calorie food images predict binge eating frequency and severity in women?
Supervisor: Dr. Sarah Racine
My name is Nilufar Mokhtarian, and I just graduated from my Bachelor of Science in Psychology. This past year I worked at the BEEP Lab under the supervision of Dr. Racine. My research project examined whether postauricular reflex (PAR) reactivity and self-reported emotional reactions to high calorie food images predict binge eating frequency and severity in women. PAR is a vestigial ear muscle response that is triggered by noise. It is a measure of reward reactivity that has been shown to predict binge eating in undergraduate students. However, no study has examined PAR reactions to food images in women with clinical binge eating.
104 women (aged 18-60 years) across the spectrum of severity of binge eating were recruited for this study. Participants completed a picture viewing task that involved viewing high calorie food images while PAR and self-reported valence, arousal, and craving ratings were recorded. Frequency and severity of binge eating was assessed using the Eating Disorder Examination interview and the Binge Eating Scale. Contrary to hypotheses, it was found that PAR potentiation during high calorie food images relative to neutral images was not significantly associated with frequency and severity of binge eating. However, in partial support of the hypotheses, more frequent and severe binge eating was found to be significantly associated with greater self-reported arousal and food craving, but not with valence, to high calorie food images relative to neutral images. The convergence of non-significant results for self-reported valence and PAR suggests that affective reactions to high calorie foods are not characterized by positive emotionality. These results may suggest that, although food cue-elicited craving may prompt the women in our sample to binge eat, they may also simultaneously experience fear or anxious arousal, and thus do not have a positive emotional reaction towards food due to concerns about body shape and weight.