The LGBTQ+ People-Animal Bond: A Systematic Review of the Effects of Companion Animals on LGBTQ+ People.

LGBTQ+ people tend to experience prejudice, stigma, and discrimination, which increases their risk of developing mental health difficulties. Support networks, including companion animals, can be used to cope with these challenges. We performed a systematic review of studies related to the effects of human-animal interactions on the LGBTQ+ population. The review included 18 empirical studies; the findings showed that participants tended to view companion animals as family members, as well as providers of love, acceptance, and social support. Thus, companion animals could alleviate stress and increase resilience. However, certain costs were also cited and, under some circumstances, poorer health was observed. The results are discussed considering three unique aspects of the "LGBTQ+ people-animal bond": (1) it promotes self-acceptance, (2) provides a sense of protection against sexuality-based stigma and social acts of aggression based on sex or gender, and (3) exposes animal guardians requesting animal care services to potential discrimination. By characterizing the LGBTQ+ people-animal bond, more effective responses to meet their needs and promote inclusion may be achieved.

Emotional processing of math-related words in people with math anxiety.

BACKGROUND: Research exploring emotional responses to math-related words in individuals with math anxiety (MA) is scarce. Here, we examined MA participants' subjective emotional processing of math-related cues within Lang's bioinformational model of emotion to further understand the role of those cues in MA. METHODS: In total, 41 high-MA and 32 low-MA undergraduates rated math-related words, along with neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant words, from the Affective Norms for English Words. The Self-Assessment Manikin was used to calculate valence, arousal, and dominance scores for each word. RESULTS: The low-MA group rated math-related words as neutral on the three emotional scales, however, the high-MA group rated them lower and higher for valence and dominance than neutral and unpleasant words, respectively. Moreover, math-related words were rated as more and less activating than neutral and unpleasant words, respectively. The two groups significantly differed in scores on the three scales only for the math-related words. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide evidence that individuals with high MA show altered emotional processing of math-related words, experiencing them as moderately aversive and moderately activating. The findings emphasize that the altered emotional processing of words associated with math should be considered a symptom of MA.

Social network addiction symptoms and body dissatisfaction in young women: exploring the mediating role of awareness of appearance pressure and internalization of the thin ideal.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies testing for a direct relationship between social networking sites (SNS) addiction and body dissatisfaction (BD) have yielded inconsistent results. Here, we aimed to identify underlying processes that could mediate this relationship. Specifically, we studied the relationship between SNS addiction symptoms and BD through the awareness of appearance pressures and the internalization of beauty ideals, both individually and serially: SNS addiction → Awareness → BD; SNS addiction → Internalization → BD; SNS addiction → Awareness → Internalization → BD. METHOD: A total of 368 female undergraduates with SNS accounts completed scales to assess SNS addiction symptoms (Social Network Addiction Questionnaire), BD (Body Shape Questionnaire), awareness, and internalization (Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4; awareness and internalization scales). A theoretical serial mediation model was constructed to examine the proposed relationships. Body mass index was included as a covariate to control the influence of this important variable. RESULTS: The results indicated that both awareness and internalization independently mediated the relationship between SNS addiction symptoms and BD. Also, there was a significant serial mediation effect; women with more SNS addiction symptoms tended to be more aware of appearance pressure, which was associated with the internalization of beauty ideals. In turn, this internalization was positively related to BD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These findings shed light on the indirect relationship between SNS addiction and BD, demonstrating independent and accumulative mediating effects of awareness and internalization.

Food addiction symptoms are related to neuroaffective responses to preferred binge food and erotic cues.

It has been proposed that some individuals succumb to maladaptive eating behaviors because, like those with addiction, they attribute high incentive salience to food-associated cues. Here, we tested whether women that attribute high incentive salience to food-associated cues report high food addiction symptomatology. In 76 college women, we assessed self-reported food addiction symptoms using the Yale Food Addiction Scale and we recorded event-related potentials (ERPs, a direct measure of brain activity) to preferred food, erotic, unpleasant, and neutral images. We used the amplitude of the late positive potential (LPP, a component of the ERPs) as an index of the incentive salience attributed to the images. Using a multivariate classification algorithm (k-means cluster analysis), we identified two neuroaffective reactivity profiles that have been previously associated with individual differences in the tendency to attribute incentive salience to cues and with differences in vulnerability to addictive behaviors. Results showed that women with elevated LPP responses to preferred food cues relative to erotic images report higher food addiction symptoms than women with low LPP responses to preferred food cues relative to other motivationally relevant stimuli. These results support the hypothesis that individual differences in the tendency to attribute incentive salience to food cues play an important role in modulating food addiction symptomatology.

Emotional reactivity to binge food and erotic cues in women with bulimia nervosa symptoms.

BACKGROUND: Studies on food cue reactivity have documented that altered responses to high-calorie food are associated with bulimic symptomatology, however, alterations in sexual motivations and behaviors are also associated clinical features in this population, which justify their inclusion as a research target. Here, we study responses to erotic cues-alongside food, neutral and aversive cues-to gain an understanding of specificity to food versus a generalized sensitivity to primary reinforcers. METHODS: We recorded peripheral psychophysiological indices -the startle reflex, zygomaticus, and corrugator responses-and self-reported emotional responses (valence, arousal, and dominance) in 75 women completing the Bulimia Test-Revised (BULIT-R). Multiple regression analysis tested whether BULIT-R symptoms were predicted by self-reported and psychophysiological responses to food versus neutral and erotic versus neutral images. RESULTS: The results showed that individuals with higher bulimic symptoms were characterized by potentiated eye blink startle response during binge food (vs. neutral images) and more positive valence ratings during erotic (vs. neutral) cues. CONCLUSIONS: The results highlight the negative emotional reactivity of individuals with elevated bulimic symptoms toward food cues, which could be related to the risk of progression to full bulimia nervosa and thereby addressed in prevention efforts. Results also point to the potential role of reactivity to erotic content, at least on a subjective level. Theoretical models of eating disorders should widen their conceptual scope to consider reactivity to a broader spectrum of primary reinforcers, which would have implications for cue exposure-based treatments. We examined appetitive and aversive cue responses in college women to investigate how bulimic symptoms relate to primary reinforcers such as food and erotic images. We recorded peripheral psychophysiological indices (the startle reflex, zygomaticus, and corrugator responses) and self-reported emotional responses (valence, arousal, and dominance) in 75 college women that were presented with the Spanish version of the Bulimia Test-Revised. The results showed that bulimic symptoms increase both psychophysiological defensiveness toward food cues and subjective pleasure toward erotic cues. The findings suggest a generalized sensitivity to primary reinforcers in the presence of bulimic symptoms, and emphasize the relevance of adopting a wider framework in research and treatment on bulimia nervosa.

Neural Processing of Food and Erotic Cues in Bulimia Nervosa.

OBJECTIVE: Event-related brain potential (ERP) studies have shown that bulimia nervosa (BN) is associated with facilitated processing of disorder-specific stimuli, visible in altered early components during presentation of food cues and bodies varying in size. Less is known about BN and late ERPs, typically less influenced by perceptual features and regarded as more reliable indices of motivational relevance. The purpose of this study was to use the late positive potential (LPP) to investigate the motivational significance of BN-relevant stimuli. METHODS: Highly salient stimuli, such as pictures of personal binge foods and images that are pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant (e.g., human attacks) were presented to 24 women with bulimia and 24 healthy women (19.7 ± 2.1 and 20.5 ± 2.6 years, respectively). Pictures of erotic couples, previously shown to prompt the greatest appetitive reactions in healthy women, were used as pleasant cues. Based on BN aversion to body cues, we hypothesized that the motivational significance of erotic cues could be increased in bulimic women. RESULTS: Consistent with the literature, the LPP was modulated by the salience of the pictures (F(2.8,130.7) = 24.6, p < .001). An additional interaction with diagnostic group (F(2.8,130.7) = 2.8, p = .047) indicated that bulimic women showed a larger LPP than healthy controls during pictures displaying binge foods (p = .037) and erotic couples (p = .031). CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide objective evidence that BN is characterized by dysregulated emotional processing that is not limited to food cues. The implications are discussed within a transdiagnostic perspective on food-related disorders.