A scoping review of emotion regulation and inhibition in emotional eating and binge-eating disorder: what about a continuum?

BACKGROUND: Emotional eating is defined as a nonpathological eating behavior, whereas binge-eating disorder (BED) is defined as a pathological eating behavior. While different, both share some striking similarities, such as deficits in emotion regulation and inhibition. Previous research has suggested the existence of an "eating continuum" that might reflect the increased severity of overeating behaviors, that is, from nonpathological overeating to BED. The main aims of this scoping review were to explore in the literature the idea of a continuum between emotional eating and BED and to observe whether deficits in emotion regulation and inhibition follow this continuum in terms of severity. The other aims were to hopefully clarify the ill-defined concept of overeating, to question the potential role of positive emotions and to identify potential knowledge gaps. METHOD: A systematic scoping review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. Two databases (PubMed/Medline and PsycINFO) were examined in complete accordance with the beforehand sharply defined eligibility and exclusion criteria. The main criteria included adults (≥ 18) with emotional eating, BED or overeating and emotion regulation and inhibition as exposure criteria. RESULTS: Thirty-two studies were included in this scoping review. If the results showed a link between emotional eating and BED, with the presence of inhibition and emotion regulation deficits in both eating behaviors, no mention of a continuum between emotional eating and BED was found. CONCLUSION: In the absence of research directly comparing emotional eating and BED in the same studies and testing the potential increase in severity of emotion regulation and inhibition deficits along this continuum, there is currently no certainty that a continuum exists between emotional eating and BED. In the end, the idea of a continuum in terms of increased severity of overeating and in terms of emotion regulation and inhibition deficits between emotional eating and BED appears to be a gap in knowledge in the literature. This scoping review highlights the need for further research to identify knowledge gaps.

Emotional eating (EE) is defined as a nonpathological eating behavior, whereas binge-eating disorder (BED) is defined as a pathological eating behavior. While different, both share some striking similarities, such as deficits in emotion regulation (ER) and inhibition. Previous research has suggested the existence of an "eating continuum" that might reflect the increased severity of overeating behaviors, that is, from nonpathological overeating to BED. The main aims of this scoping review were to explore in the literature the idea of a continuum between EE and BED and to observe whether deficits in ER and inhibition follow this continuum in terms of severity. A systematic scoping review was conducted, and thirty-two studies were included in this review. If the results showed a link between EE and BED, with the presence of inhibition and ER deficits in both eating behaviors, no mention of a continuum between EE and BED, or in relation to a continuum, was found. Thus, in the absence of research directly comparing EE and BED in the same studies and testing the potential increase in severity of ER and inhibition deficits along this continuum, there is currently no certainty about the existence or absence of such a continuum.

Visual illusions influence proceduralized sports performance.

Does the Ebbinghaus visual illusion really influence sports performances? Does the influence depend on the type of knowledge (procedural vs. declarative) that guides movement? To address these questions, we evaluated the knowledge hypothesis, a novel hypothesis according to which the more sports performance relies on procedural knowledge, the more it will be influenced by visual illusions. In the context of golf putting, we first used the high-error/low-error motor-learning technique (Experiment 1) or varied the number of practice trials (Experiment 2) to induce novice participants to rely more on procedural knowledge than on declarative knowledge (or vice versa). We then manipulated the perceived size of two golf holes by projecting a ring of small or large circles around them, which caused the holes to appear larger or smaller, respectively. This Ebbinghaus visual illusion had an influence on putting in both experiments. We also observed a pattern of findings consistent with the knowledge hypothesis: the procedural groups were moderately influenced by the illusion when putting, but the declarative groups were influenced only weakly, at best. Among the participants most sensitive to the illusion, the analyses confirmed a significantly stronger influence for the procedural group. Overall, these findings demonstrate that the effect of visual illusions on sports performance is a reliable phenomenon for proceduralized actions. The knowledge hypothesis represents an attractive way of reconciling earlier divergent findings.

Ebbinghaus visual illusion: no robust influence on novice golf-putting performance.

Do visual illusions reliably improve sports performance? To address this issue, we used procedures inspired by Witt et al. (Psychol Sci 23:397-399, 2012) seminal study, which reported that putting on a miniature golf course was positively influenced by an increase in apparent hole size induced by the Ebbinghaus visual illusion. Because Witt et al.'s motor task-putting golf balls toward a hole from the distance of 3.5 m-was impossible for participants who were novices in golf (Experiment 1a), we decided to shorten the putting distance (i.e., 2 m instead of 3.5 m) in Experiment 1b. Otherwise, this second experiment closely followed every other aspects of Witt et al.'s procedure (i.e., one small or one standard golf hole surrounded by a ring of small or large circles). However, this attempt to replicate Witt et al.'s findings failed: the Ebbinghaus illusion significantly influenced neither hole perception nor putting performance. In two subsequent experiments, we encouraged the emergence of the effect of the illusion by simultaneously presenting both versions of the illusion on the mat. This major adaptation successfully modified the perceived size of the hole but had no impact on putting performance (Experiment 2), even when the putting task was made easier by shortening the putting distance to only 1 m (Experiment 3). In the absence of detectable effects of the illusion on putting performance, we conclude that the effects of visual illusions on novice sports performance do not represent a robust phenomenon.

Ideomotor compatibility enables automatic response selection.

A task is ideomotor (IM)-compatible when there is high conceptual similarity between the stimulus and the associated response (e.g., pressing a left key when an arrow points to the left). For such an easy task, can response selection operate automatically, bypassing the attentional bottleneck that normally constrains dual-task performance? To address this question, we manipulated the IM compatibility of a Task 2 that was performed concurrently with a non-IM-compatible Task 1, using the psychological refractory period procedure. Single-task trials, randomly intermixed with dual-task trials, served as a baseline against which to assess dual-task costs. The results indicated bottleneck bypassing (i.e., simultaneous response selection on both tasks) when Task 2 was IM-compatible, as evidenced by negligible dual-task costs on Task 2 (as well as on Task 1), very high percentages of response reversals, and weak correlations between Task-1 and Task-2 reaction times. These findings were supported by a fine-grained simulation analysis of inter-response intervals. We conclude that the perception of an IM-compatible stimulus directly activates the response code, which can then be selecting automatically, without recruiting central attention, consistent with A. G. Greenwald's (Journal of Experimental Psychology, 94, 52-57, 1972) original theory of IM compatibility.

Attentional capture in driving displays.

Drivers face frequent distraction on the roadways, but little is known about situations placing them at risk of misallocating visual attention. To investigate this issue, we asked participants to search for a red target embedded within simulated driving scenes (photographs taken from inside a car) in three experiments. Distraction was induced by presenting, via a GPS unit, red or green distractors positioned in an irrelevant location at which the target never appeared. If the salient distractor captures attention, visual search should be slower on distractor-present trials than distractor-absent trials. In Experiment 1, salient distractors yielded no such capture effect. In Experiment 2, we decreased the frequency of the salient distractor from 50% of trials to only 10% or 20% of trials. Capture effects were almost five times larger for the 10% occurrence group than for the 20% occurrence group. In Experiment 3, the amount of available central resources was manipulated by asking participants to either simultaneously monitor or ignore a stream of spoken digits. Capture effects were much larger for the dual-task group than for the single-task group. In summary, these findings identify risk factors for attentional capture in real-world driving scenes: distractor rarity and diversion of attention.

Cognitive aging and flight performances in general aviation pilots.

Unlike professional pilots who are limited by the FAA's age rule, no age limit is defined in general aviation. Our overall goal was to examine how age-related cognitive decline impacts piloting performance and weather-related decision-making. This study relied on three components: cognitive assessment (in particular executive functioning), pilot characteristics (age and flight experience), and flight performance. The results suggest that in comparison to chronological age, cognitive assessment is a better criterion to predict the flight performance, in particular because of the inter-individual variability of aging impact on cognitive abilities and the beneficial effect of flight experience.