Immediate pleasures and future consequences. A neuropsychological study of binge eating and obesity

Longitudinal data indicate that our capacity for adaptive self-regulation is a relatively stable predisposition that appears in childhood and predicts future life successes. In 2004, we published the first study demonstrating decision-making deficits in overweight/obese adult women. The present study is an extension of these findings. We assessed obese women with (n=65) and without (n=73) binge-eating disorder (BED), and a group (n=71) of normal-weight women, on two neuropsychological tests: the Iowa Gambling Task and a Delay Discounting measure. The BED and obese groups had worse performance scores on both tasks compared to normal controls, but did not differ from each other. These findings suggest that adaptive decision-making and the ability to delay gratification may influence our eating behaviours, particularly in a food environment where effortful control of energy intake is essential for the maintenance of a healthy body weight. There were also group differences in education level with fewer BED and obese individuals having a post-secondary degree, in accord with established links between socioeconomic status and body weight. Interestingly, when education level was added to the models, those with a higher education performed better on both tasks, and the group differences were not significant.