Sweets and fats tasting in patients with anorexia nervosa: the role of the thought-shape fusion cognitive distortion (original) (raw)
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Assessment of fat taste in individuals with and without anorexia nervosa
The International journal of eating disorders, 2014
Avoidance of dietary fat is a highly characteristic eating behavior of individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN). To date, no study has determined whether these individuals are better able to perceive the fat content of foods than individuals without AN. The goal of this study was to compare blinded taste ratings of fat-free, low fat, and regular cream cheese in patients with AN and in normal controls (NC). AN (n = 25) and control (NC; n = 25) participants were presented with a series of nine cream cheese samples of three differing fat contents and asked to taste and rate each sample from very low to very high fat. Repeated measures ANOVA found no significant main effect of fat content and no interaction between fat content and diagnosis; however, a significant three-way interaction between fat content, diagnosis, and trial was observed. Post hoc analysis revealed a significant fat content by trial interaction within the AN group, suggesting a significant trial effect for the fat-free ...
A Systematic Review of Taste Differences Among People With Eating Disorders
Biological Research For Nursing, 2019
Background: Eating disorders are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The etiology and maintenance of eating-disorder symptoms are not well understood. Evidence suggests that there may be gustatory alterations in patients with eating disorders. Objective: This article systematically reviews research assessing gustatory differences in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED). Method: A systematic review was performed, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, examining taste and eating disorders. We reviewed electronic databases and identified 1,490 peer-reviewed English-language studies. Of these, 49 met inclusion criteria. Results: Studies employed psychophysical measures ( n = 27), self-reported questionnaires ( n = 5), and neuroimaging techniques (i.e., electroencephalography, functional magnetic resonance imaging; n = 17). Psychophysical studies showed that individuals wit...
Neuropsychopharmacology, 2008
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an illness characterized by aversion to ingestion of normally palatable foods. We examined whether there is a primary disturbance of taste processing and experience of pleasure using a sucrose/water task in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). To avoid confounding effects of illness, 16 women recovered from restricting-type AN were compared to 16 control women (CW). We used a region of interest-based fMRI approach to test the idea that individuals with AN have differential neural activation in primary and secondary taste cortical regions after sucrose and water administration. Compared to CW, individuals recovered from AN showed a significantly lower neural activation of the insula, including the primary cortical taste region, and ventral and dorsal striatum to both sucrose and water. In addition, insular neural activity correlated with pleasantness ratings for sucrose in CW, but not in AN subjects. Altered taste processing may occur in AN, based on differences in activity in insular-striatal circuits. These data provide the first evidence that individuals with AN process taste stimuli differently than controls, based on differences in neural activation patterns.
Taste sensitivity in anorexia nervosa: A systematic review
International Journal of Eating Disorders
Objective: There is evidence for altered processing of taste in anorexia nervosa, particularly in the areas of reward processing and hedonic sensitivity. However, research on whether people with anorexia nervosa identify taste stimuli accurately, known as taste sensitivity, has yielded mixed findings. The objective of this study was to synthesize the literature on taste sensitivity in this disorder to provide a basis for future discussion on whether altered taste sensitivity may be also implicated in wider atypical taste processing in anorexia. Method: Electronic databases were searched systematically to identify published research examining taste sensitivity in anorexia. Search terms were "anorexia nervosa", or "eating disorder", combined with "taste". 18 studies met inclusion criteria. Results: The review of the findings suggest that individuals with AN may experience reduced taste sensitivity that may improve following recovery. However, there was a significant variability in results across studies, potentially reflecting methodological problems including low sample sizes, experimental designs, and uncontrolled confounding variables. Discussion: This review suggests that altered taste sensitivity could represent a component in the wider altered taste processing observed in anorexia nervosa. However, the heterogeneity of findings highlight the need for future research to consider methodological issues raised by this review. Resumen Objetivo: Existe evidencia de una alteraci on en el procesamiento del gusto en la anorexia nervosa, particularmente en areas del procesamiento de la recompensa y la sensibilidad hed onica. Sin embargo, la investigaci on sobre si las personas con anorexia nervosa identifican los estímulos del gusto con precisi on, conocida como sensibilidad del gusto, ha arrojado resultados mixtos. El objetivo de este estudio fue sintetizar la literatura sobre la sensibilidad del gusto en este trastorno para proporcionar una base para la discusi on futura sobre si la sensibilidad al gusto alterada puede estar implicada tambi en en el procesamiento atípico, m as amplio, en la anorexia. M etodo: Se realiz o una b usqueda sistem atica en bases de datos electr onicas para identificar investigaciones publicadas que examinaron la sensibilidad del gusto en la anorexia. Los t erminos de b usqueda fueron "anorexia nervosa" o "trastorno alimentario", combinados con "gusto". Un total de 18 estudios cumplieron los criterios de inclusi on. Resultados: la revisi on de los hallazgos sugiere que las personas con AN experimentaron una sensibilidad del gusto reducida que puede mejorar despu es de la recuperaci on. Sin embargo, hubo una variabilidad significativa en los resultados entre los estudios, lo que podría reflejar problemas metodol ogicos que incluyen tamaños de muestra pequeños, diseños experimentales y variables de confusi on no controladas.
American Journal of Psychiatry, 2013
Objective-The pathophysiology of the eating disorder anorexia nervosa remains obscure, but structural brain alterations could be functionally important biomarkers. Here we assessed taste pleasantness and reward sensitivity in relation to brain structure, which might be related to food avoidance commonly seen in eating disorders. Method-We used structural magnetic resonance brain imaging to study gray and white matter volumes in individuals with restricting type currently ill (n = 19) or recovered-anorexia nervosa (n = 24), bulimia nervosa (n= 19) and healthy control women (n=24). Results-All eating disorder groups showed increased gray matter volume of the medial orbitofrontal cortex (gyrus rectus). Manually tracing confirmed larger gyrus rectus volume, and predicted taste pleasantness across all groups. The analyses also indicated other morphological differences between diagnostic categories: Ill and recovered-anorexia nervosa had increased right, while bulimia nervosa had increased left antero-ventral insula gray matter volumes compared to controls. Furthermore, dorsal striatum volumes were reduced in recovered-anorexia and bulimia nervosa, and predicted sensitivity to reward in the eating disorder groups. The eating disorder groups also showed reduced white matter in right temporal and parietal areas when compared to healthy controls. Notably, the results held when controlling for a range of covariates (e.g., age, depression, anxiety, medications). Conclusion-Brain structure in medial orbitofrontal cortex, insula and striatum is altered in eating disorders and suggests altered brain circuitry that has been associated with taste pleasantness and reward value.
Nutrients, 2022
Objective: The aim of this study was to perform analysis of sensitivity to sweet, salty, and umami tastes based on three measurement methods and of the hedonic perception of taste sensations in adolescent females with anorexia nervosa (AN). The aim of the research was to confirm the results of other authors in terms of the perception of sweet and salty taste in patients with AN, and then develop knowledge about the perception of umami taste, which is still insufficiently studied. Method: A total of 110 females with an age ranging from 13 to 19 years, including 50 newly diagnosed patients with a restrictive subtype of AN and 60 healthy controls participated in gustatory research involving analyses of taste perception (recognition thresholds, ability to identify the taste correctly, taste intensity, and hedonic response) applying the sip and spit method. Results: Females with AN showed reduced sensitivity to salty taste and increased sensitivity to umami taste and, more often than hea...
Psychiatry Research, 2010
Although patients with anorexia nervosa have been suggested to be anhedonic, few experiments have directly measured their sensory pleasure for a range of food and non-food stimuli. This study aimed to examine whether restrictive anorexia nervosa (AN-R) patients displayed: i) a generalized decline in sensory pleasure or only in food-related sensory pleasure; ii) a modification of hedonic responses to food cues (liking) and of the desire to eat foods (wanting) as a function of their motivational state (hunger vs. satiety) and energy density of foods (high vs. low). Forty-six female participants (AN-R n = 17; healthy controls (HC) n = 29) reported before/after lunch their pleasure for pictures/odorants representing foods of different energy density and non-food objects. They also reported their desire to eat the foods evoked by the sensory stimuli, and completed the Physical Anhedonia Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory. AN-R and HC participants did not differ on liking ratings when exposed to low energy-density food or to non-food stimuli. The two groups also had similar physical anhedonia scores. However, compared to HC, AN-R reported lower liking ratings for high energy food pictures regardless of their motivational state. Olfactory pleasure was reduced only during the pre-prandial state in the AN-R group. The wanting ratings showed a distinct pattern since AN-R participants reported less desire to eat the foods representing both low and high energy densities, but the effect was restricted to the pre-prandial state. Taken together these results reflect more the influence of core symptoms in anorexia nervosa (fear of gaining weight) than an overall inability to experience pleasure.