Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, LWL University Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany.
Int J Eat Disord. 2021 Aug;54(8):1477-1485. doi: 10.1002/eat.23526. Epub 2021 May 6.
To enhance our understanding of reward stimuli in anorexia nervosa (AN) and to provide a basis for future research on reward processes, disorder specific reward stimuli as well as primary and secondary reinforcers were investigated.
We developed a set of pictures with "disorder specific reward" stimuli, with the six subcategories "sport," "losing weight," "healthy food," "discipline," "thin bodies," "appreciation of others," and evaluated reward ratings of these "disorder specific reward" stimuli as well as "erotic," "high caloric," and "neutral" stimuli in 25 patients with AN and 25 participants in the comparison group (CG).
We found a significant main effect for picture category and a significant interaction. The reward ratings were higher in patients with AN compared with CG for the "disorder specific reward" stimuli. In the reward subcategories, patients with AN had higher reward ratings compared with CG in all categories except of healthy food. The "disorder specific reward" stimuli of the categories "sport," "losing weight," and "healthy food" showed higher reward ratings compared with the categories "discipline," "thin bodies," and "appreciation of others" in patients with AN.
The previously used category "thin bodies" used to investigate the reward system might be less effective compared with stimuli from the categories "sport," "losing weight," and "healthy food."
增进我们对厌食症（AN）中奖励刺激的理解，并为未来奖励过程、特定障碍的奖励刺激以及初级和次级强化物的研究提供基础。
我们开发了一套带有“障碍特异性奖励”刺激的图片，分为六个亚类：“运动”、“减肥”、“健康食品”、“纪律”、“瘦弱的身体”和“他人的欣赏”，并评估了 25 名 AN 患者和 25 名对照组（CG）参与者对这些“障碍特异性奖励”刺激以及“色情”、“高热量”和“中性”刺激的奖励评分。
我们发现图片类别有显著的主效应和显著的交互作用。与 CG 相比，AN 患者对“障碍特异性奖励”刺激的奖励评分更高。在奖励子类别中，除健康食品外，AN 患者的奖励评分均高于 CG。与“纪律”、“瘦弱的身体”和“他人的欣赏”相比，AN 患者对“运动”、“减肥”和“健康食品”类别的“障碍特异性奖励”刺激的奖励评分更高。
与“运动”、“减肥”和“健康食品”等类别的刺激相比，之前用于研究奖励系统的“瘦弱的身体”类别可能效果较差。
