H Dickson1, S Brooks, R Uher, K Tchanturia, J Treasure, I C Campbell. 1. Section of Eating Disorders, Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. h.dickson@iop.kcl.ac.uk
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Attentional difficulties reported in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) may be due to preferential processing of disease-salient stimuli at a pre-attentive or at a conscious level or to a general problem in attention. Attentional difficulties may be associated with duration of illness. METHOD: Female participants with AN (restricting subtype; n=24) and healthy comparison women (n=24) were randomly allocated to subliminal or supraliminal exposure to visual stimuli (food, neutral and aversive images) while performing the 1-back and 2-back working-memory tasks. RESULTS: Participants with AN made fewer errors than the healthy comparison group in the subliminal condition but significantly more errors in the supraliminal condition [condition x group interaction, F(1, 44)=6.82, p<0.01]: this was irrespective of stimulus type (food, neutral and aversive) and task (1-back or 2-back). The total number of errors made correlated positively with the duration of the AN for both the 1-back task (rs=0.46, p<0.05) and for the 2-back task (rs=0.53, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Decreased ability to concentrate in the presence of explicit distracters is a feature of AN and is associated with longer duration of illness. This phenomenon could be addressed in psychological interventions.
RCT Entities:
BACKGROUND: Attentional difficulties reported in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) may be due to preferential processing of disease-salient stimuli at a pre-attentive or at a conscious level or to a general problem in attention. Attentional difficulties may be associated with duration of illness. METHOD: Female participants with AN (restricting subtype; n=24) and healthy comparison women (n=24) were randomly allocated to subliminal or supraliminal exposure to visual stimuli (food, neutral and aversive images) while performing the 1-back and 2-back working-memory tasks. RESULTS:Participants with AN made fewer errors than the healthy comparison group in the subliminal condition but significantly more errors in the supraliminal condition [condition x group interaction, F(1, 44)=6.82, p<0.01]: this was irrespective of stimulus type (food, neutral and aversive) and task (1-back or 2-back). The total number of errors made correlated positively with the duration of the AN for both the 1-back task (rs=0.46, p<0.05) and for the 2-back task (rs=0.53, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Decreased ability to concentrate in the presence of explicit distracters is a feature of AN and is associated with longer duration of illness. This phenomenon could be addressed in psychological interventions.
Authors: Samantha J Brooks; Gareth J Barker; Owen G O'Daly; Michael Brammer; Steven C R Williams; Christian Benedict; Helgi B Schiöth; Janet Treasure; Iain C Campbell Journal: BMC Psychiatry Date: 2011-11-17 Impact factor: 3.630
Authors: Christina Ralph-Nearman; Margaret Achee; Rachel Lapidus; Jennifer L Stewart; Ruth Filik Journal: Brain Behav Date: 2019-11-07 Impact factor: 2.708