Abnormal Reward Processing in Eating Disorders and Relevant Interventions

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.211020.178How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Eating Disorders, Reward Circuitry, Neuroimaging, Neuroendocrinology

Abstract

The reward processing system plays a fundamental role in guiding people’s behaviours and maintaining the body’s operation. Thus, it is meaningful to concern about the changes in decision-making due to impaired reward processing as a factor of developing mental illness. Most studies of eating disorders emphasize psychological perspectives such as attachment mode, which means that the studies of binge eating disorders that focus on the reward processing system are quite limited. This narrative review focuses on the influence of brain regions and neuroendocrine in reward processing circuits on food reward valuation. Based on the studies of patients with different eating disorders, there are implications on the abnormal reward patterns regarding food appearing among people with binge eating disorder and anorexia nervosa and potential correlation with abnormality in related brain regions such as the orbitofrontal cortex. The human literature and experiments are conducted to test the relationship between abnormal reward processing and eating disorders. The correlation of impairments in flexible reward-based decision-making caused by dysfunction of brain areas and neuroendocrine in reward processing circuits and abnormal eating episodes with the support of neuroimaging evidence are also introduced. The efficacy of several interferences of reward response regarding abnormal eating behaviours as treatment of the eating disorder is discussed with respect to a series of control experiments. However, limited studies focusing on the relationship between the reward system and eating disorders haven’t provided sufficient evidence to prove a robust correlation. In the future, more studies are expected to take place in natural settings instead of laboratory settings to improve the low validity of conclusions.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zhengkun Fu
AU  - Xiaoyang Liu
AU  - Tong Su
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/10/21
TI  - Abnormal Reward Processing in Eating Disorders and Relevant Interventions
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences (ICPRSS 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 344
EP  - 349
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211020.178
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.211020.178
ID  - Fu2021
ER  -