Individuals with binge eating symptoms show greater self-reported wanting and liking, but not greater physiological responses, to images of personalized versus non-personalized foods
Supervisor: Dr. Sarah Racine
I’m Viveca, and this year I worked with Dr. Sarah Racine on my project which looked at whether individuals with binge eating symptoms show greater physiological responses and self-reported wanting and liking to images of personalized foods (i.e. foods most frequently consumed during binge eating episodes) compared to images of non-personalized foods (i.e. standard high-calorie foods). Two reflexive electromyography measures assessing positive emotion (postauricular reflex) and negative emotion (startle blink reflex) were used to investigate physiological cue reactivity. Our results revealed that self-reports of liking, craving, and arousal were greater for personalized food cues compared to non-personalized food cues, while the personalization of food cues did not have an effect on physiological responses. Overall, our results suggest that personal relevance of food stimuli modifies the strength of cognitive responses to food cues. Interventions targeting cue reactivity in eating disorders may benefit from personalization of the food cues.