This study investigated the neural mechanisms located in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) involved in maintaining addictive-like eating behavior. Therefore, we aimed to fill a gap in the existing literature and help clarify the food addiction (FA) cycle by inspecting the relationship between the executive control and psychopathology involved in the FA cycle. Twenty-three students recruited from the University of Macau participated in this study. We investigated a hemodynamic response captured by NIRS recordings, activated during n-back, set-shifting, and go/no-go paradigms. Moreover, we investigated the FA symptoms through the YFAS clinical inventory to better understand the relationship between hemodynamic response and clinical symptomatology in college students. First, the hemodynamic findings confirm that altered cognitive control in executive function performance appears to be linked to addictive-like eating behaviors, which in turn confirms a circuit similarity between FA and the substance abuse population (SUD) as reported in previous fMRI studies. Secondly, the psychological findings confirm the significant association between the working memory deficits and symptoms severity which suggest the role of self-control and regulation in limiting the storage resources as a potential trigger to develop overconsumption episodes in the FA cycle. Our findings highlight how disrupted self-control and regulation of craving and negative affect induced by mental imagery might shape and overload the working memory storage as a potential trigger to develop binge eating episodes to maintain the FA cycle. In conclusion, the use of fNIRS in the context of eating disorders studies represents a valuable application, noninvasive, and patient-friendly tool, providing new insights into understanding the addiction cycle and treatment guidelines.

中文翻译：

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食物成瘾中执行功能障碍的光学神经影像学

这项研究调查了位于前额叶皮层 (PFC) 中参与维持上瘾样饮食行为的神经机制。因此，我们旨在填补现有文献中的空白，并通过检查 FA 周期中涉及的执行控制与精神病理学之间的关系来帮助阐明食物成瘾 (FA) 周期。来自澳门大学的二十三名学生参加了这项研究。我们研究了 NIRS 记录捕获的血流动力学反应，在n-back、set-shifting 和 go/no-go 范式。此外，我们通过 YFAS 临床清单调查了 FA 症状，以更好地了解大学生血流动力学反应与临床症状学之间的关系。首先，血液动力学研究结果证实，执行功能表现中认知控制的改变似乎与类似成瘾的饮食行为有关，这反过来又证实了之前 fMRI 研究中报道的 FA 和药物滥用人群 (SUD) 之间的电路相似性。其次，心理学研究结果证实了工作记忆缺陷与症状严重程度之间的显着关联，这表明自我控制和调节在限制存储资源方面的作用是在 FA 周期中发展过度消费事件的潜在触发因素。我们的研究结果强调了自我控制和对由心理意象引起的渴望和负面影响的调节如何破坏和超载工作记忆存储，作为发展暴食事件以维持 FA 周期的潜在触发因素。总之，在饮食失调研究的背景下使用 fNIRS 代表了一种有价值的应用、非侵入性和对患者友好的工具，为理解成瘾周期和治疗指南提供了新的见解。