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. 2021 Apr 26;10(3):498-507.
doi: 10.1556/2006.2021.00023. Print 2021 Oct 5.

The neural correlates of delay discounting in obesity and binge eating disorder

Romina Miranda-Olivos  1   2   3 , Trevor Steward  4 , Ignacio Martínez-Zalacaín  1   3 , Gemma Mestre-Bach  5 , Asier Juaneda-Seguí  1   3   6 , Susana Jiménez-Murcia  1   2   3 , José A Fernández-Formoso  2 , Nuria Vilarrasa  7   8 , Misericordia Veciana de Las Heras  9 , Nuria Custal  1 , Nuria Virgili  7 , Rafael Lopez-Urdiales  7 , José M Menchón  1   3   6 , Roser Granero  2   10 , Carles Soriano-Mas  1   6   10 , Fernando Fernandez-Aranda  1   2   3
Affiliations

The neural correlates of delay discounting in obesity and binge eating disorder

Romina Miranda-Olivos et al. J Behav Addict. .

Abstract

Background and aims: Increased delay discounting is associated with obesity and binge eating disorder (BED). Although BED and obesity frequently co-occur, the neural mechanisms underlying delay discounting in these conditions remain poorly understood.

Methods: Thirtyfive women with obesity, including 10 participants with obesity and BED and 31 controls completed a monetary delay discounting task during functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Results: We identified that increased discounting rates were associated with decreased activity in the left anterior insula in participants with obesity compared to controls when choosing immediate rewards over delayed rewards (P FWE < 0.05). An exploratory analysis comparing the BED subsample to the other groups did not detect significant differences.

Discussion and conclusions: Our findings suggest decreased activity in the anterior insula may underlie heightened delay discounting in individuals with obesity, contributing the probability of choosing immediate rewards over delayed rewards based on emotional states. Future studies including larger, more diverse samples are required to confirm these effects.

Keywords: binge eating disorder; delay discounting; eating disorders; fMRI; obesity.

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Conflict of interest statement

FF-A declares having received consultation honoraries from Novo Nordisk and editorial honoraries from Wiley. The rest of the authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
The left panel depicts the identified increased activation in the left anterior insula associated with discount rates in the control group in comparison to the obesity group (OB-all) during NOW > LATER. Color bar represents t-values. Results are displayed at family-wise error (FWE) probability (P FWE < 0.05), (P < 0.001), cluster-extent. The right panel depicts individual participant activation levels according to group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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