Task-Evoked Neural Activity During Reward Anticipation and Inhibitory Control in Preadolescent Binge Eating Disorder

Abstract

Purpose: Behavioral features of binge eating disorder (BED) suggest abnormalities in reward and inhibitory control. Studies of adult populations suggest functional abnormalities in reward and inhibitory control networks. Despite behavioral markers often developing in children, the neurobiology of pediatric BED remains unstudied.

Methods: Fifty eight preadolescent children (aged 9-10 years) with BED and 68 age, body mass index and developmentally matched control children were extracted from the 3.0 baseline (Year 0) release of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. We investigated task-evoked blood-oxygen-level-dependent response during functional magnetic resonance imaging, as participants completed the monetary incentive delay task and the stop signal task. We indexed group differences in regions of interest in the reward (orbitofrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens) and inhibitory control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex).

Results: No significant group differences emerged during tasks of inhibitory control among children with BED and children without BED. Similarly, no significant group differences emerged during the anticipation or receipt of reward among children with BED and children without BED.

Discussion: Preadolescent children with BED do not demonstrate abnormal neural activity in prominent nodes of reward or inhibitory control circuitry during tasks of inhibitory control, reward anticipation, and reward receipt, relative to children without BED who also had a similar body mass index.

Keywords: Binge eating disorder; Eating disorders; Functional MRI; Inhibitory control; Preadolescent eating disorders; Reward sensitivity.