7. Conclusions
food-specific disgust, eating disorder
The present explorative study tested the correlations of food-specific disgust measures with eating disorder psychopathology and food interaction measures by using the VR paradigm in people with AN. The findings showed that both food-specific trait and state disgust were correlated with eating disorder severity. The correlation between food-specific trait disgust and food-related eye gaze was statistically significant in the virtual kitchen plus pet scenario, but not in the other two virtual kitchen scenarios. The inconsistent findings could be explained by the small sample size or the effect of variations in the virtual kitchen scenarios. The present study offers valuable insight into ways to modify the design of future VR studies to examine potential correlates of food-specific disgust in people with AN, which could contribute to assessment and treatment strategies.