Disgust acquisition, extinction, and reacquisition in eating disorders: Specificity and associations with symptom...

Although disgust is frequently endorsed by individuals with eating disorders (EDs), it's unclear if such individuals experience differences in disgust learning that may contribute to the underlying pathology of the disorder. Accordingly, the present examined differences in Pavlovian disgust conditioning between individuals with an ED (n = 30) compared to non-clinical controls (n = 30). Participants completed a conditioning procedure that consisted of one neutral food item (conditioned stimulus; CS+) paired with disgusting videos of individuals vomiting (unconditioned stimulus; US) and another neutral food item (CS-) that was not reinforced with disgusting videos. Following the conditioning procedure, all participants were offered candy to assess food avoidance. The results demonstrated that all participants rated the CS + as significantly more disgusting than the CS- during acquisition and reacquisition, but not during habituation or extinction. This pattern of disgust learning did not vary between those with EDs and controls. The ED group did report significantly higher disgust ratings to the US and CS across all study phases and took fewer pieces of candy after conditioning than controls. However, disgust ratings of the CS+ and US were unrelated to food avoidance in the ED group. Lastly, exploratory analyses in the full sample showed that disgust ratings of the CS+ during acquisition and the US were significantly correlated with disgust proneness, trait anxiety, and ED symptoms (i.e. body image concerns, dieting attitudes, weight fluctuations). The implications of these findings for better understanding the complex role of disgust in EDs are discussed.