Food addiction and high impulsivity are common traits in obesity. In accordance with the evidence that time is overestimated in patients with a history of impulsivity and/or drug addiction, we tested the hypothesis that duration is overestimated in obesity. A total of 92 obese participants and 182 healthy controls completed a timing task of visual stimuli. In line with our prediction, obese participants overestimated the duration of the displayed visual stimuli than controls. Our result has potential clinical implications in the field of obesity, as it suggests a potential contribution of this cognitive dysfunction in the emergence and maintenance of obesity-related behaviour.
AmlungMPetkerTJacksonJ, et al. (2016) Steep discounting of delayed monetary and food rewards in obesity: A meta-analysis. Psychological Medicine46: 2423–2434.
2.
AvanzinoLPelosinEVicarioCM, et al. (2016) Time processing and motor control in movement disorders. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience10: 631
3.
AvenaNMBocarslyMEHoebelBG (2012) Animal models of sugar and fat bingeing: Relationship to food addiction and increased body weight. Methods in Molecular Biology829: 351–365.
4.
BaddeleyA (2000) The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory?Trends in Cognitive Sciences4: 417–423.
5.
BaumannAAOdumAL (2012) Impulsivity, risk taking, and timing. Behavioral Processes90: 408–414.
6.
BlockRAZakayDHancockPA (1998) Human aging and duration judgments: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Aging13: 584–596.
7.
BrownSWWestAN (1990) Multiple timing and the allocation of attention. Acta Psychologica (Amsterdam)75: 103–121.
8.
BuhusiCVMeckWH (2006) Interval timing with gaps and distracters: Evaluation of the ambiguity, switch, and time-sharing hypotheses. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavioral Process32: 329–338.
9.
ChopraMGalbraithSDarnton-HillI (2002) A global response to a global problem: The epidemic of overnutrition. Bullettin of World Health Organ80: 952–958.
10.
ClarkCRPaulRHWilliamsLM, et al. (2006) Standardized assessment of cognitive functioning during development and aging using an automated touchscreen battery. Archivies of Clinical Neuropsychology21: 449–467.
11.
CookRLO’DwyerNJDongesCE, et al. (2017) Relationship between obesity and cognitive function in young women: The food, mood and mind study. Journal of Obesity2017: 5923862.
12.
CritchleyHDWiensSRotshteinP, et al. (2004) Neural systems supporting interoceptive awareness. Nature Neuroscience7: 189–195.
13.
DayFLoosR (2011) Developments in obesity genetics in the era of genome-wide association studies. Journal of Nutrigenet Nutrigenomics4: 222–238.
14.
DeckerJHFignerBSteinglassJE (2015) On weight and waiting: Delay discounting in anorexia nervosa pretreatment and posttreatment. Biological Psychiatry78: 606–614.
15.
EnnsJTBrehautJCShoreDI (1999) The duration of a brief event in the mind’s eye. Journal of General Psychology126: 355–372.
16.
FinucaneMGretchenMMelanieAS, et al. (2011) National, regional, and global trends in body-mass index since 1980: Systematic analysis of health examination surveys and epidemiological studies with 960 country-years and 9.1 million participants. The Lancet377: 557–567.
17.
FlegalKMCarrollMDOgdenCL, et al. (2010) Prevalence and trends in obesity among US Adults, 1999–2008. The Journal of the American Medical Association303: 235–241.
18.
FontaineKRReddenDTWangC, et al. (2003) Years of life lost due to obesity. The Journal of the American Medical Association289: 187–193.
19.
ForsterJHigginsETIdsonLC (1998) Approach and avoidance strength during goal attainment: Regulatory focus and the ‘goal looms larger’ effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology75: 1115–1131.
20.
GarnerDM (2004) Eating Disorder Inventory-3. Professional Manual. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
21.
GhanavatiESalehinejadMANejatiV, et al. (2019) Differential role of prefrontal, temporal and parietal cortices in verbal and figural fluency: Implications for the supramodal contribution of executive functions. Scientific Reports9(1): 3700.
22.
GielKETeufelMJunneF, et al. (2017) Food-related impulsivity in obesity and binge eating disorder – A systematic update of the evidence. Nutrients9(11): E1170.
23.
Graham ThomasJSeidenAKoffarnusMN, et al. (2015) Delayed reward discounting and grit in men and women with and without obesity. Obesity Science Practice1: 131–135.
24.
GunstadJPaulRHCohenRA, et al. (2006) Obesity is associated with memory deficits in young and middle-aged adults. Eating Weight Disorders11: e15–e19.
25.
GuyenetSJSchwartzMW (2012) Clinical review: Regulation of food intake, energy balance, and body fat mass: Implications for the pathogenesis and treatment of obesity. Journal of Clinical Endocrinological Metabolism97: 745–755.
26.
GuzeSB (1995) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th ed. (DSM-IV). American Journal of Psychiatry152: 1228.
27.
IkedaSKangMIOhtakeF (2010) Hyperbolic discounting, the sign effect, and the body mass index. Journal of Health Economy29: 268–284.
28.
JarmolowiczDPCherryJBReedDD, et al. (2014) Robust relation between temporal discounting rates and body mass. Appetite78: 63–67.
29.
KimBKZaubermanG (2018) Psychological time and intertemporal preference. Current Opinion in Psychology26: 90–93.
30.
KochGCostaLBrusaA, et al. (2008) Impaired reproduction of second but not millisecond time intervals in Parkinson’s disease. Neuropsychologia46: 1305–1313.
31.
KoliakiCLiatisSKokkinosA (2019) Obesity and cardiovascular disease: Revisiting an old relationship. Metabolism92: 98–107.
32.
KravitzAVO’NealTJFriendDM (2016) Do dopaminergic impairments underlie physical inactivity in people with obesity?Frontiers in Human Neuroscience10: 514.
33.
KullmannSMHeniRVeitC, et al. (2012) The obese brain: Association of body mass index and insulin sensitivity with resting state network functional connectivity. Human Brain Mapping33: 1052–1061.
34.
LeeYKroemerNBOehmeL, et al. (2018) Lower dopamine tone in the striatum is associated with higher body mass index. European Neuropsychopharmacology28: 719–731.
35.
Lerma-CabreraJMCarvajalFLopez-LegarreaP (2016) Food addiction as a new piece of the obesity framework. Nutrition Journal15: 5.
36.
LewisPAMiallRC (2006) Remembering the time: A continuous clock. Trends in Cognitive Sciences10: 401–406.
37.
LockenhoffCE (2011) Age, time, and decision making: From processing speed to global time horizons. Annals New York Academy of Sciences1235: 44–56.
38.
LovibondPFLovibondSH (1995) The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the depression anxiety stress scales (DASS) with the beck depression and anxiety inventories. Behavior Research and Therapy33: 335–343.
39.
MillerALLeeHJLumengJC (2015) Obesity-associated biomarkers and executive function in children. Pediatric Research77: 143–147.
40.
MonsellS (2003) Task switching. Trends in Cognitive Sciences7: 134–140.
41.
NejatiVSalehinejadMANitscheMA (2018) Interaction of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (l-DLPFC) and right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in hot and cold executive functions: Evidence from transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Neuroscience369: 109–123.
42.
NummenmaaLJHirvonenJCHannukainenH, et al. (2012) Dorsal striatum and its limbic connectivity mediate abnormal anticipatory reward processing in obesity. PLoS ONE7: e31089.
43.
PaulRHGunstadJCooperN, et al. (2007) Cross-cultural assessment of neuropsychological performance and electrical brain function measures: Additional validation of an international brain database. International Journal of Neuroscience117: 549–568.
44.
SchagKSchonleberJTeufelM, et al. (2013) Food-related impulsivity in obesity and binge eating disorder – A systematic review. Obesity Reviews14: 477–495.
45.
SimesRJ (1986) An improved Bonferroni procedure for multiple tests of significance. Biometrika73: 751–754.
46.
SmithEHayPCampbellL, et al. (2011) A review of the association between obesity and cognitive function across the lifespan: Implications for novel approaches to prevention and treatment. Obesity Reviews12: 740–755.
47.
SoaresSAtallahBVPatonJJ (2016) Midbrain dopamine neurons control judgment of time. Science354: 1273–1277.
48.
SpiegelKTasaliEPenevP, et al. (2004) Brief communication: Sleep curtailment in healthy young men is associated with decreased leptin levels, elevated ghrelin levels, and increased hunger and appetite. Annals of Internal Medicine141: 846–850.
49.
SteinglassJEFignerBBerkowitzS, et al. (2012) Increased capacity to delay reward in anorexia nervosa. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society18: 773–780.
50.
SteinglassJELempertKMChooTH, et al. (2017) Temporal discounting across three psychiatric disorders: Anorexia nervosa, obsessive compulsive disorder, and social anxiety disorder. Depression and Anxiety34: 463–470.
51.
StoeckelLEMurdaughDLCoxJE, et al. (2013) Greater impulsivity is associated with decreased brain activation in obese women during a delay discounting task. Brain Imaging Behavior7: 116–128.
52.
SuarezAL (2019) Burden of cancer attributable to obesity, type 2 diabetes and associated risk factors. Metabolism92: 136–146.
53.
SugovicMTurkPWittJK (2016) Perceived distance and obesity: It’s what you weigh, not what you think. Acta Psychologica (Amsterdam)165: 1–8.
54.
SuoTZhangFZhaoG, et al. (2014) The influence of time perception difference on intertemporal choice. Acta Psychologica Sinica46: 165–173.
55.
TomasiDVolkowND (2013) Striatocortical pathway dysfunction in addiction and obesity: Differences and similarities. Critical Review of Biochemical Molecular Biology48: 1–19.
56.
TsePUIntriligatorJRivestJ, et al. (2004) Attention and the subjective expansion of time. Perception & Psychophysics66: 1171–1189.
57.
TuYSomanD (2014) The categorization of time and its impact on task initiation. Journal of Consumer Research41: 810–822.
58.
VallesiABinnsMAShalliceT (2008) An effect of spatial-temporal association of response codes: Understanding the cognitive representations of time. Cognition107: 501–527.
59.
VicarioCM (2013) Cognitively controlled timing and executive functions develop in parallel? A glimpse on childhood research. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience7: 146.
60.
VicarioCMFelminghamK (2018a) The perception of time is underestimated in adolescents with anorexia nervosa. Frontiers in Psychiatry9: 121.
61.
VicarioCMFelminghamKL (2018b) Slower time estimation in post-traumatic stress disorder. Scientific Reports8: 392.
62.
VicarioCMYatesMJNichollsME (2013) Shared deficits in space, time, and quantity processing in childhood genetic disorders. Frontiers in Psychology4: 43. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00043.
63.
VicarioCMKuranKAUrgesiC (2019) Does hunger sharpen senses? A psychophysics investigation on the effects of appetite in the timing of reinforcement-oriented actions. Psychological Research83(3): 395–405.
64.
VicarioCMMartinoD (2010) The neurophysiology of magnitude: One example of extraction analogies. Cognitive Neuroscience1: 144–145.
65.
VicarioCMCaltagironeCOliveriM (2007) Optokinetic stimulation affects temporal estimation in healthy humans. Brain and Cognition64: 68–73.
66.
VicarioCMGulisanoMMartinoD, et al. (2016) Timing recalibration in childhood Tourette syndrome associated with persistent pimozide treatment. Journal of Neuropsychology10: 211–222.
67.
VicarioCM (2012) Perceiving numbers affects the internal random movements generator. Scientific World Journal2012: 347068.
68.
VicarioCMMartinoDPavoneEF, et al. (2011) Lateral head turning affects temporal memory. Perceptual and Motor Skills113(1): 3–10.
69.
VicarioCMMartinoDSpataF, et al. (2010) Time processing in children with Tourette’s syndrome. Brain and Cognition73: 28–34.
70.
VicarioCMRafalRDMartinoD, et al. (2017) Core, social and moral disgust are bounded: A review on behavioral and neural bases of repugnance in clinical disorders. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews80: 185–200.
71.
VicarioCMRappoGPepiAM, et al. (2009) Timing flickers across sensory modalities. Perception38: 1144–1151.
72.
VolkowNDWangG-JBalerRD (2011) Reward, dopamine and the control of food intake: Implications for obesity. Trends in Cognitive Sciences15: 37–46.
73.
WalshV (2003) A theory of magnitude: Common cortical metrics of time, space and quantity. Trends in Cognitive Sciences7: 483–488.
74.
WatkinsTJDi IorioCROlatunjiBO, et al. (2016) Disgust proneness and associated neural substrates in obesity. Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience11: 458–465.
75.
WilliamsLMSimmsEClarkCR, et al. (2005) The test-retest reliability of a standardized neurocognitive and neurophysiological test battery: ‘Neuromarker’. The International Journal of Neuroscience115: 1605–1630.
76.
WilsonM (2002) Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletting & Reviews9: 625–636.
77.
WittmannMLelandDSChuranJ, et al. (2007) Impaired time perception and motor timing in stimulant-dependent subjects. Drug & Alcohol Dependence90: 183–192.
78.
WuJSkillingQMMaruyamaD, et al. (2018) Functional network stability and average minimal distance – A framework to rapidly assess dynamics of functional network representations. Journal of Neuroscience Methods296: 69–83.
79.
ZelantiPSDroit-VoletS (2011) Cognitive abilities explaining age-related changes in time perception of short and long durations. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology109: 143–157.
