# Neural Underpinnings of Anxiety in Relation to Eating Behaviors in Adolescence

> **NIH NIH F31** · HENRY M. JACKSON FDN FOR THE ADV MIL/MED · 2020 · $29,520

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Loss of control (LOC) eating, a hallmark feature of binge eating disorder, involves the subjective experience of
being unable to control what or how much is being eaten. Common in adolescent girls, LOC eating is a precursor
to partial- or full-syndrome binge eating disorder as well as worsening of depressive and anxiety symptoms,
higher risk for excess weight and fat gain, and worsening of metabolic syndrome components. These data
indicate that LOC eating in childhood may be a prospective marker for adverse outcomes. LOC eating in youth
is highly comorbid with anxiety, and is predictive of increases in anxiety symptoms over time, suggesting shared
neural underpinnings and/or etiologies. Indeed, at least one neuroimaging study found that girls with overweight
and obesity and reported LOC eating demonstrated a similar neural response to social distress as youth with
anxiety. These data suggest youth with LOC eating may have an attention bias (preferential allocation of attention
to highly salient stimuli) to socially threatening stimuli, similar to that of youth with anxiety. This attention bias
may be explained by the interpersonal model of disordered eating. According to interpersonal theory, LOC eating
may develop as a result of maladaptive coping with negative affective states, such as anxiety, that arise from
socially distressing situations. Food consumption is triggered as an attempt to escape from the uncomfortable
affective state. This maladaptive coping strategy may be due, in part, to heightened sensitivity to incoming social
cues and abnormalities in anxiety processing socio-emotional neural circuits. Notably, there are data to suggest
that anxiety, specifically, plays a role in the relationship between social cues and consumption of overeating
highly palatable foods in youth with reported LOC eating. However, the interpersonal model has not been directly
tested making use of a task to assess attention bias to social threat cues among youth with LOC eating. Further,
there are no data to indicate whether LOC eating impacts the relationship between attention bias to social threat
and neural aspects of anxiety processing and subsequent eating behaviors. The temporal nature of attention
bias to social threat and activity in neural circuits involved in anxiety processing is ideally suited for measurement
by magnetoencephalography (MEG), which has both excellent temporal and spatial resolution. Utility of MEG
has been supported for differentiating between neural components of attention bias to social threat. Thus,
utilizing MEG may elucidate the neural bases of attention bias toward threat that may contribute to LOC eating.
The proposed study will examine the relationship between attention bias to social threat cues and neural
activation implicated in social anxiety (i.e. anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,
medial prefrontal cortex, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) and subsequent energy...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9980711
- **Project number:** 5F31MH119762-02
- **Recipient organization:** HENRY M. JACKSON FDN FOR THE ADV MIL/MED
- **Principal Investigator:** Meghan E Byrne
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $29,520
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-12 → 2021-08-11

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9980711

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9980711, Neural Underpinnings of Anxiety in Relation to Eating Behaviors in Adolescence (5F31MH119762-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9980711. Licensed CC0.

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