School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, UK.
Department of Psychology, School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.
Psychiatry Res. 2018 Nov;269:444-449. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.08.055. Epub 2018 Aug 18.
Cognitive flexibility, as measured through set-shifting ability, appears to be impaired in patients with eating disorders (EDs). Thus, it is important to determine if the switching deficit seen in clinical eating disorders generalizes to participants with a subclinical disordered eating. Another deficit manifested by clinical and subclinical disordered eating is the ability to retrieve specific autobiographical memories. It is possible that deficits in autobiographical memory retrieval extends to the ability to shift between retrieving specific versus general autobiographical memory information, a function important for problem -solving and emotion regulation. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to determine whether deficits in set-shifting are evident in a non-clinical sample of female university students with eating concerns, and whether inflexibility is also manifested in autobiographical memory retrieval. Sixty-nine female undergraduate students completed a measure of autobiographical memory flexibility, a set-shifting task (Brixton Spatial Anticipation Test) and measures of mood, ruminative thinking, and eating habits. After controlling for mood and rumination, bulimic traits predicted set-shifting ability and flexibility in autobiographical memory retrieval. Thus, flexibility deficits appear to manifest at the subclinical level, are evident in different domains, and appear to be related to bulimic traits, such as binge eating.
认知灵活性，通过转换能力来衡量，在饮食失调（ED）患者中似乎受损。因此，重要的是要确定在临床饮食失调中看到的转换缺陷是否普遍存在于有亚临床饮食失调的参与者中。另一个由临床和亚临床饮食失调表现出的缺陷是检索特定自传体记忆的能力。检索特定与一般自传体记忆信息之间的转换能力的缺陷可能会延伸到自传体记忆检索能力，这对于解决问题和情绪调节很重要。因此，本研究的目的是确定是否在有饮食担忧的女性大学生的非临床样本中存在转换能力的缺陷，以及灵活性是否也表现在自传体记忆检索中。69 名女大学生完成了自传体记忆灵活性、转换能力测试（布里克斯顿空间预测测试）以及情绪、沉思思维和饮食习惯的测试。在控制情绪和沉思后，暴食特征预测了转换能力和自传体记忆检索的灵活性。因此，灵活性缺陷似乎在亚临床水平表现出来，并且在不同领域都很明显，并且似乎与暴食特征有关，例如暴食。
