Food-Related Attentional Biases and Eating Disorder Risk Behaviors in Argentine Women

Eating disorder risk behaviors (EDRBs) constitute a significant vulnerability factor for the development of eating disorders, particularly among young women. Neuroimaging studies have identified structural alterations in brain regions involved in selective attention, cognitive inhibition, and emotional processing in patients with acute underweight. Functional changes may also emerge during subclinical stages, although few studies have examined them in Argentina. The present study explored the relationship between EDRBs and attentional biases toward food-related stimuli in a non-clinical Argentine population. This exploratory, cross-sectional, quasi-experimental study included 123 Argentine women aged 18 or older who were assessed using the EAT-26. Participants were classified into high-risk (≥20; n = 52) and low-risk (n = 71) groups. Of these, 20 participants completed an online Food Stroop task. Reaction times and accuracy rates were analyzed under congruent and incongruent conditions involving high- and low-calorie food stimuli. To date, preliminary findings from 4 participants indicate that the high-risk group exhibited stronger interference in incongruent conditions involving high-calorie foods (RT = 1.308 s vs. 0.791 s in the low-risk group), along with greater performance variability. These findings suggest a possible attentional bias toward food-related and caloric stimuli, supporting the relevance of further research on early detection strategies.