Enhanced behavioral inhibition in restrained eaters

Lack of inhibitory control has been found to play a decisive role in disordered eating behavior. Behavioral and self-report measures show impulsive tendencies to even occur in non-clinical samples, e.g. restrained eaters. In restrained eaters, these traits interact with high reactivity to food-related cues leading to overeating. The aim of the present study was to investigate if restrained eaters would show this behavioral disinhibition specifically in response to food cues. Participants performed a Go/No-Go-task with stimuli encircled by pictures of high caloric foods or neutral objects. In contrast to our hypotheses, restrained eaters made less commission errors than unrestrained eaters independent of the picture type. Restrained eaters had higher reaction time as compared to unrestrained eaters solely when confronted with food pictures, indicating an attentional bias toward these stimuli. We interpret our results such that the lack of inhibitory control in restrained eaters is situation specific rather than general. We further speculate that exposure to food cues might have increased their behavioral inhibition as in real life situation when they succeed in maintaining their goal of restrained food intake.

Research Highlights
► This study examined inhibitory control in response to food cues.
► Restrained eaters had longer reaction times than unrestrained eaters to food cues.
► Restrained eaters made fewer commission errors than unrestrained eaters.
► Restrained eaters’ attentional bias to food cues did not impair inhibitory performance.
► Food cue exposure might have increased restrained eaters’ behavioral inhibition.