Food deprivation and emotional reactions to food cues: implications for eating disorders

Two Studies examined emotional responding to food cues. In experiment 1, no rmal college students were assigned to 0, 6- or 24-h of food deprivation pr ior to presentations of standard emotional and food-related pictures. Food deprivation had no impact on responses elicited by standard emotional pictu res. However, subjective and psychophysiological reactions to food pictures were affected significantly by deprivation. Importantly, food-deprived sub jects viewing food pictures showed an enhanced startle reflex and increased heart rate. Experiment 2 replicated the food deprivation effects from expe riment 1, and examined participants reporting either a habitual pattern of restrained (anorexia-like) or binge (bulimia-like) eating. Food-deprived an d binge eater groups showed startle potentiation to food cues, and rated th ese stimuli as more pleasant, relative to restrained eaters and control sub jects. The results are interpreted from the perspective that startle modula tion reflects activation of defensive or appetitive motivation. Implication s of the data for understanding eating disorders are considered. (C) 2001 E lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.