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Author Spotlight: Accessible M&M-Based Mouse Model for Investigating Binge Eating Disorder - Insights into Eating Behaviors, Anxiety, and Neural Mechanisms
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Author Spotlight: Accessible M&M-Based Mouse Model for Investigating Binge Eating Disorder - Insights into Eating Behaviors, Anxiety, and Neural Mechanisms

Published on: January 10, 2025

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Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Binge Eating in 9- to 10-Year-Old Children

Kathryn E Smith1, Eustace Hsu1, Tyler B Mason1

  • 1University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
|September 7, 2024
PubMed

Insights

Children with binge eating (BE) show blunted neural responses to reward anticipation. This suggests altered reward processing may contribute to binge eating pathophysiology in youth.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Eating Disorders

Background:

  • Binge eating disorder (BED) is a prevalent eating disorder with significant psychosocial consequences.
  • Understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of BED in youth is crucial for early intervention.
  • Previous research on BED neurobiology may be confounded by weight status.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare biobehavioral measures of reward responsiveness, inhibitory control, and emotion processing in children with and without binge eating (BE).
  • To investigate the impact of weight status as a covariate and moderator in these comparisons.
  • To explore the role of neural activation patterns in the pathophysiology of binge eating in children.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, including 316 children with BE and 7,681 without BE (ages 9-10).
  • Administered neuroimaging tasks: Monetary Incentive Delay (MID), Stop Signal Task (SST), and Emotional N-Back (EN-Back).
  • Analyzed task performance and neural signals in regions of interest (ROIs), controlling for weight status.

Main Results:

  • Children with BE exhibited significantly lower neural activation in reward-related brain regions (dorsal striatum, nucleus accumbens, OFG, amygdala, insula) during anticipation of large rewards compared to controls.
  • No significant differences were found between groups in other behavioral or neural outcomes.
  • Weight status did not moderate the observed group differences.

Conclusions:

  • Blunted anticipatory responses to monetary reward in peri-adolescence are associated with binge eating.
  • These findings suggest that altered reward processing may be a key factor in binge eating pathophysiology.
  • This study highlights the need for future prospective research on BED across different stages of illness, accounting for weight status.
Abstract

Keywords:
binge eatingchildreneating disordersneuroimagingobesity

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