Mechteld M van den Hoek Ostende, Giulia Brizzi, Valentina Meregalli, Philipp A Schroeder, Enrico Collantoni
{"title":"Psychological distance affects real movements in virtual reality: distance to food in anorexia nervosa.","authors":"Mechteld M van den Hoek Ostende, Giulia Brizzi, Valentina Meregalli, Philipp A Schroeder, Enrico Collantoni","doi":"10.1186/s40337-025-01357-0","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Patients with restrictive Anorexia Nervosa (AN-R) severely restrict their food intake, often showing significant food avoidance behavior, especially for diet-goal threatening and high-calorie foods. Still, stringent comparisons of avoidance behaviors in relation to calorie dense foods, low-calorie food and abstract (amodal) food cues are required to better understand the underlying mechanisms.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Approach-avoidance behavior was measured in individuals with AN-R (n = 21) and Healthy Controls (HC; n = 19) using a virtual reality stop-signal task. In a virtual environment, participants had to reach a digitally rendered hand toward low-calorie, high-calorie and amodal (packaged) food cues, as well as nonfood cues (shoes). If a stop-sign appeared, they had to inhibit this movement (stop-trials). They also rated how much they liked and wanted each stimulus on a visual analog scale from 0 to 100.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Participants showed more approach behavior towards amodal food cues compared to high-calorie concrete food cues (t[39] = 25.38, p <.001, d = 4.01). Furthermore, patients with AN-R reported lower wanting for high-calorie foods (t[37] = 2.13, p =.040, d = 2.13) and greater wanting for nonfood cues (t[37] = -3.35, p =.002, d = 3.35). Across groups, liking was highest for high-calorie food, both packaged (t[39] = 4.03, p =.002, d = 0.40) and unpackaged (t[39] = 3.53, p =.007, d = 0.36).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Food presentation can influence approach behavior toward food cues. Future research is needed to determine whether the use of abstract food cues can facilitate food approach behavior in individuals with AN-R.</p>","PeriodicalId":48605,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Eating Disorders","volume":"13 1","pages":"169"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12329868/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Eating Disorders","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-025-01357-0","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"NUTRITION & DIETETICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Patients with restrictive Anorexia Nervosa (AN-R) severely restrict their food intake, often showing significant food avoidance behavior, especially for diet-goal threatening and high-calorie foods. Still, stringent comparisons of avoidance behaviors in relation to calorie dense foods, low-calorie food and abstract (amodal) food cues are required to better understand the underlying mechanisms.
Methods: Approach-avoidance behavior was measured in individuals with AN-R (n = 21) and Healthy Controls (HC; n = 19) using a virtual reality stop-signal task. In a virtual environment, participants had to reach a digitally rendered hand toward low-calorie, high-calorie and amodal (packaged) food cues, as well as nonfood cues (shoes). If a stop-sign appeared, they had to inhibit this movement (stop-trials). They also rated how much they liked and wanted each stimulus on a visual analog scale from 0 to 100.
Results: Participants showed more approach behavior towards amodal food cues compared to high-calorie concrete food cues (t[39] = 25.38, p <.001, d = 4.01). Furthermore, patients with AN-R reported lower wanting for high-calorie foods (t[37] = 2.13, p =.040, d = 2.13) and greater wanting for nonfood cues (t[37] = -3.35, p =.002, d = 3.35). Across groups, liking was highest for high-calorie food, both packaged (t[39] = 4.03, p =.002, d = 0.40) and unpackaged (t[39] = 3.53, p =.007, d = 0.36).
Conclusions: Food presentation can influence approach behavior toward food cues. Future research is needed to determine whether the use of abstract food cues can facilitate food approach behavior in individuals with AN-R.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Eating Disorders is the first open access, peer-reviewed journal publishing leading research in the science and clinical practice of eating disorders. It disseminates research that provides answers to the important issues and key challenges in the field of eating disorders and to facilitate translation of evidence into practice.
The journal publishes research on all aspects of eating disorders namely their epidemiology, nature, determinants, neurobiology, prevention, treatment and outcomes. The scope includes, but is not limited to anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and other eating disorders. Related areas such as important co-morbidities, obesity, body image, appetite, food and eating are also included. Articles about research methodology and assessment are welcomed where they advance the field of eating disorders.