Antecedent-Focused Emotion Regulation Strategies in Obesity: An EEG study on Distraction and Reappraisal

Background/ Objectives: Impairments in emotion regulation (ER) have been reported in obesity (OB), with most studies showing greater use of maladaptive strategies while others show difficulties implementing adaptative strategies. A complementary tool to self-report measures for studying ER is event-related potentials (ERP), concretely the late positive potential (LPP), which allows to understand the time-course of ER processes. This study analyzed behavioral and neural correlates of adaptative ER strategies, distraction and reappraisal, and when they start being applied, in OB individuals and healthy controls (HC). Subjects/ Methods: Twenty-eight participants with OB (BMI > 30) and 23 HC were recruited. Participants performed an ER task, while EEG was recorded. Results: Results showed that OB individuals (vs. HC) presented greater LPP amplitudes for distraction and reappraisal, at 500-700ms. In the OB group, reappraisal reduced LPP earlier (300-1300ms) than distraction (1500-1700ms). Conclusions: These findings highlight ER difficulties early in the emotion-generative process in OB, specifically pertaining to attention deployment, independently of the presence of binge eating symptoms.