Introduction
depressed, eating disorder, binge eating episodes, Eating Disorder, DSM-5
RECURRENCE, REMISSION, DISORDERS, PURGING
Since 2013, Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is a distinct eating disorder according to the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Diverse studies investigated underlying cognitive mechanisms, and their role in the development, maintenance as well as remission of BED [A core characteristic of BED is the recurrence of binge eating episodes at least once a week on average within the last 3 months and loss of control without inappropriate compensatory behaviours (e.g., fasting, purging, excessive exercise). According to the DSM-5 three of the following symptoms have to occur during the above-mentioned core symptom: eating faster than usual; eating until feeling uncomfortably full; eating large amounts of food when not physically hungry; eating alone because of being embarrassed by how much one is eating; feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed or very guilty after overeating. Last, people should report distress regarding their binge eating behaviour. Two theoretical frameworks seem suitable to explain the core symptom of BED. First, a dual-process system consisting of an impulsive system and a reflective system [Especially, if food stimuli are involved, research has shown that several cognitive domains in patients with BED are altered compared to healthy controls: decreased mental flexibility [Whereas most experimental paradigms measure exclusively cognitive domains, virtual reality (VR) in combination with motion tracking allows to investigate more complex appetitive behaviour such as grasping movements and their hypothesized underlying cognitive processes. In this context, embodied cognitions play a central role. Within the concept of embodied cognitions it is assumed, that the agent’s physical body causally contributes to cognitive processes [To validate and explore the clinical implication of these findings, we set out to investigate the VR paradigm in a sample with BED. We again use high-calorie food to achieve clearer effects when comparing to the control objects as we did in Max et al. (2021), as it was shown that high-calorie food displays differences to control objects better than low-calorie food [