Abnormal sense of agency in eating disorders

Livia Colle; Dize Hilviu; Monica Boggio; Alessandra Toso; Paola Longo; Giovanni Abbate-Daga; Francesca Garbarini; Carlotta Fossataro

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-41345-5

Abnormal sense of agency in eating disorders

Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 30;13(1):14176. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-41345-5.

Authors

Livia Colle¹, Dize Hilviu¹, Monica Boggio¹, Alessandra Toso², Paola Longo², Giovanni Abbate-Daga², Francesca Garbarini³, Carlotta Fossataro⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
² Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, AOU Città della Salute e della Scienza, Turin, Italy.
³ MANIBUS Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
⁴ MANIBUS Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy. carlotta.fossataro@unito.it.

Abstract

The feeling of controlling one's own actions and, through them, impacting the external environment (i.e. Sense of Agency-SoA) can be relevant in the eating disorders (EDs) symptomatology. Yet, it has been poorly investigated. This study aims to implicitly assess SoA exploiting the Sensory Attenuation paradigm in two groups of EDs patients (Anorexia Nervosa Restrictive and Anorexia Nervosa Binge-Purging or Bulimia Nervosa) compared to a control group. We find that controls perceive self-generated stimuli as less intense than other-generated ones showing the classic pattern of sensory attenuation. By contrast, EDs patients show the opposite pattern, with self-generated perceived as more intense than other-generated stimuli. This result indicates an alteration of the implicit component of the feeling of control in EDs patients, thus suggesting a potential implication of these results for the clinical practice and the treatment of EDs symptomatology.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anorexia Nervosa*
Bulimia Nervosa*
Emotions
Feeding and Eating Disorders*
Humans