To eat or not to eat? Availability of food modulates the electrocortical response to food pictures in restrained eaters

Restrained eating is a pattern of chronic dietary restriction interspersed with episodes of disinhibited overeating. The present study investigated whether this eating pattern is related to altered electrocortical processing of appetitive food stimuli in two different motivational contexts. Restrained (n = 19) and unrestrained eaters (n = 21) passively viewed high-caloric food pictures, along with normative emotional pictures in a first block. In a second block, food availability was manipulated: participants were told that half of the food items should later be eaten (available food items), whereas the other half of food items was said to be unavailable. While no group differences were obtained during the first block, restrained eaters’ event-related potentials (ERPs) were significantly modulated by the availability manipulation: ERPs for available food cues were significantly less positive than ERPs to unavailable food cues. Restrained eaters might down-regulate their reactivity to available food cues to maintain their dietary rules.