Examination of the Attention Bias Model of Loss of Control Eating in Adolescents

描述（由申请人提供）：饮食失控（LOC）是一种无法控制所吃食物的类型或数量的主观体验，是亚阈值和完全综合征饮食失调青少年的标志性特征。患有LOC的年轻人一直报告社会压力增加，对食物的奖励属性敏感。明确社会压力和食物奖励敏感性触发和加剧LOC进食的机制，需要开发新的有针对性的干预措施。为了理解精神病理学的原因，国家心理健康战略计划研究所提出，研究的一个关键重点应该包括阐明神经回路扰动如何导致行为障碍和核心心理过程。拟议中的Ruth L. Kirschstein国家研究服务奖（NRSA）是一个为期两年的研究和培训项目，重点研究青少年LOC饮食中对社会威胁和美味食物线索的注意偏见的神经回路。脑磁图（MEG）是一种具有良好时间和空间分辨率的神经成像技术，它允许分离两种顺序的注意偏差机制：1)由情绪显著线索引起的早期无意识注意捕获；2)随后继续将注意力部署到那些显著刺激上，从而产生越来越强烈的不舒服的情感状态。在75名有（n=50）和没有（n=25） LOC进食的青春期女孩中，拟议的项目将采用随机交叉设计，在社会威胁和美味食物线索注意偏差点探针范式中使用MEG检查神经回路活动。在每次脑磁图测试后，将在经过验证的实验室测试餐中评估类似loc的饮食行为。这些脑磁图测试将评估以下假设：面对威胁性面孔（与中性面孔相比）和美味食物（与中性非食物相比）图像时，报告和观察到的LOC严重程度的增加与：1)在无意识注意捕获期间，“自下而上”注意回路的相对激活程度更高；2)持续注意部署期“自上而下”注意回路的相对激活钝化。在LOC进食女孩亚组（n=50）中，采用生态瞬时评估法评估注意偏倚范式中神经回路反应对现实世界心理过程的可泛化性。这项研究的发现将证实一种新的注意力机制的重要性，这种机制至少在一定程度上解释了情绪失调和LOC进食之间的关系。研究结果还将提供重要的新信息，说明在实验室中观察到的脑-行为关系是否在生态学上是有效的。拟议的NRSA将提供开展这一多模式研究所需的概念和技术研究技能方面的独特多学科培训。神经影像学、实验室测试餐和生态瞬间评估的创新整合将阐明大脑、行为和环境如何相互作用，以促进青少年饮食失调的发展和维持。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Loss of control (LOC) eating, the subjective experience of being unable to control the type or quantity of food consumed, is a hallmark feature of adolescents with sub-threshold and full syndrome eating disorders. Youth with LOC consistently report heightened social stress and sensitivity to the rewarding properties of food. Clarifying the mechanisms by which social stress and food reward sensitivity trigger and exacerbate LOC eating is required to develop novel targeted interventions. To understand the causes of psychopathology, the National Institute of Mental Health Strategic Plan proposes that a critical focus of study should involve elucidating how neural circuitry perturbations contribute to behavioral disturbances and core psychological processes. The proposed Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) is a two-year program of research and training focused on the neural circuitry mediating attention biases to social threat and palatable food cues in adolescent LOC eating. Magnetoencephalography (MEG), a neuroimaging technology with both excellent temporal and good spatial resolution, allows for the dissociation of two sequenced attention bias mechanisms: 1) Early unconscious attention capture provoked by emotionally salient cues; and 2) Later continued attention deployment towards those salient stimuli that gives rise to increasingly intense uncomfortable affective states. Among 75 adolescent girls with (n=50) and without (n=25) LOC eating, the proposed project will examine neural circuit activity using MEG during social threat and palatable food cue attention bias dot probe paradigms in a randomized crossover design on 2 separate days. Following each MEG session, LOC-like eating behavior will be assessed at a well-validated laboratory test meal. These MEG- test meal sessions will evaluate hypotheses that, in response to threatening (vs. neutral) faces and palatable food (vs. neutral non-food) images, increased reported and observed LOC severity will be associated with: 1) greater relative activation in "bottom-up" attention circuitry during the unconscious attention capture period; and 2) blunted relative activation in "top-down" attention circuitry during the continued attention deployment period. In the subset of girls with LOC eating (n=50), the generalizability of neural circuitry responses during the attention bias paradigms to real-world psychological processes will be evaluated using ecological momentary assessment. Findings from the proposed study would confirm the importance of a novel attentional mechanism that at least partly explains the relationship between affect dysregulation and LOC eating. Results will also provide important new information about whether brain-behavior relationships observed in the laboratory are ecologically valid. The proposed NRSA will provide unique multidisciplinary training in conceptual and technical research skills needed to carry out this multi-modal study. The innovative integration of neuroimaging, laboratory test meals, and ecological momentary assessment will elucidate how the brain, behavior, and environment interact to contribute to the development and maintenance of disordered eating in adolescents.