Table 1.
Studies using food-specific adaptations of standard reward and inhibitory control tasks to assess binge-eating populations.
| Authors | Participants | Task | Food and non-food specific task design | Stimulus type | Concurrent neuroimaging | Main findings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bodell & Keel 2015 | BN (N = 32); control (N = 32) | Reinforcing value of food | Progressive ratio food-specific reinforcement schedule to earn chocolate candies | Consumed food | None | BN > controls RVF breakpoint |
| Schebendach et al. 2013 | BN (N = 10); control (N = 10) | Reinforcing value of food | Progressive ratio food-specific reinforcement schedule to earn strawberry yogurt shake | Consumed food | None | Under binge instructions: BN > control RVF breakpoint and work performance Under non-binge instruction: No group differences |
| Goldfield et al. 2008 | BE/low stress (N = 12); BE/high stress (N = 10); non-BE/low stress (N = 6); non-BE/ high stress (N = 9) | Relative reinforcing value of “unhealthy” vs. “healthy” food | Progressive ratio food-specific reinforcement schedule; participant choice between snack food or fruit/vegetable | Consumed food | None | Stress vs. control condition: BE/high stress earned more snack food points and non-BE/high stress earned less snack food points Stress condition: BE/high stress > non-BE high stress snack food points |
| Simon et al. 2016 | BED (N = 27); BN (N = 29); control (N = 55) | Monetary incentive delay/food incentive delay task (MID/FID) | Event-related design of modified MID including snack food-specific (S) and monetary (M) blocks in the order of SMSM or MSMS, counterbalanced across participants | Visual graphic cue, triangle target, and pictures of money with monetary amounts or pictures of snack foods with snack point values | fMRI | Expectation of food: BED/BN < control activation in PCC Receipt of food: BED/BN > control activation in mOFC, anterior mPFC and PCC No group differences related to monetary reward |
| Frank et al. 2011 | BN (N = 20); control (N = 23) | Taste temporal difference learning task | Event-related cued delivery of sucrose, no solution and artificial saliva in randomized order, 20% of trials had no presentation following sucrose cue and 20% of trials had sucrose presentation following the no solution cue; allocation of stimuli counterbalanced across subjects | Tastants | fMRI | BN < control activation in the insula, ventral putamen, amygdala and OFC for unexpected receipt BN: omission of taste and brain regression response to TD model |
| Lyu et al. 2017 | BE (N = 31); control (N = 31) | Go/No-Go task | Runs including high-calorie food, low-calorie food and non-food household item stimuli; each stimulus type served as a “go” or “no-go” in a block with each of the other stimulus types to total six blocks; order was counterbalanced across subjects | Pictures | None | BE > non-BE faster RTs and greater accuracy on high-calorie food “Go” trials |
| Mobbs et al. 2011 | BED (N = 16); non-BED OB (N = 16); control (N = 16) | Go/No-Go task | “Food/body-mental flexibility task”; made up of two sections: (1) food and objects (e.g. pencil), (2) body-related words and objects; “No-go” target shifts within each section | Words | None | BED > non-BED errors and omissions in both sections of the task |
| Hege et al. 2015 | BED (N = 17); non-BED (N = 17) | Go/No-Go task | One Go/no-go task of high-calorie food and nonfood toy stimuli, each stimulus type served as a “go” or “no-go” in one of two blocks; blocks presented in pseudo-randomized order and counterbalanced across groups | Pictures | MEG | BED: trend for decrease in accuracy for “No-go” of food stimuli BED > control activation in pre- and postcentral gyri associated with activity differences for “Go” in both stimulus types Food vs. toy stimuli in BED and toy vs. food stimuli in control: increased activity in left middle occipital gyrus control (not BED): successful “No-go” of food associated with activity in right dlPFC |
| Skunde et al. 2016 | BN (N = 28); control (N = 29) | Go/No-Go task | Event-related Go/no-go task made up of general (G; square “go”/circle “no-go”) and food (F; household item “go”/food “no-go”) specific blocks, ordered GFFGGFFG for one run and FGGFFGGF for the other run, runs were counterbalanced across participants | Visual shapes and Pictures | fMRI | General task: controls > BN inhibition to no-go stimuli control > BN participants with most frequent BE activation in right pre- and postcentral gyrus, right caudate, and right putamen No differences for food specific task |
| Svaldi et al. 2014 | BED (N = 31); non-BED (N = 29) | Stop-signal task | Modified SST including highly appetitive food items and neutral, non-palatable household items, balanced stimuli types | Pictures | None | BED > non-BED stop signal reaction time, and more difficulty inhibiting responses to food stimuli |
| Manasse et al. 2016 | BE (N = 25); non-BE (N = 65) | Stop-Signal task | Modified SST including even number of blocks of neutral non-food stimuli (e.g. scissors), pleasant non-food stimuli (e.g. flowers) and highly palatable food stimuli; block order was counter-balanced across subjects | Pictures | None | BE > controls SSRT across stimuli types |
BN, bulimia nervosa; BED, binge eating disorder; OB, obese; BE, individuals with binge eating; ED, eating disorder; RVF, reinforcing value of food; OFC, orbitofrontal cortex; mOFC, medial orbitofrontal cortex; PCC, posterior cingulate cortex; mPFC, medial prefrontal cortex; dlPFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; MID, Monetary Incentive Delay Task; RT, reaction time; fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging; MEG, magnetoencephalography.