Ameliorating Cognitive Control in Binge Eating Disorder by Electrical Brain Stimulation (ACCElect)

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Patients with BED form a subgroup of obese patients with a disinhibited eating pattern that is associated with major impairments in cognitive control. The dlPFC has been identified as a brain region closely tied to cognitive control processes and crucially involved in the control of eating behaviour. This suggests the dlPFC as a target for the modulation of cognitive control processes over eating in BED. This modulation can be achieved by both, a cognitive training task and by non-invasive brain stimulation using tDCS. In studies with healthy normal-weight participants, (1) different cognitive training task enhance control over eating behaviour, (2) tDCS is an effective tool to ameliorate cognitive control processes, and (3) has beneficial effects on motivational aspects of eating behaviour, i.e. food craving. Based on this evidence, we will use a combination of a cognitive control task and tDCS to enhance cognitive control over eating in patients with BED. This is to the best of our knowledge the first study to use non-invasive brain stimulation in BED patients and one of the first studies to use tDCS as an intervention to enhance cognitive control over eating.