Individual differences in eating attitudes are associated with distinct resting-state functional connectivity patterns in healthy adults

Abstract Eating disorders (EDs) and obesity are multifaceted conditions that reflect extremes of over- and under-nutrition and may cause significant life-altering complications. The individual susceptibility to potential development of EDs or obesity is determined by specific eating behaviors and attitudes toward food. Whether this behavioural vulnerability is also associated with specific neural connectivity patterns is unknown. This study aimed to investigate associations between resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) and nonpathological premorbid attitudes toward food in healthy adults. Forty-eight healthy adults (mean age = 61.79 ± 11.07) underwent structural and functional MRI acquisitions on a 3-T MRI scanner. Attitudes toward food and eating were assessed using the Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire (AEBQ). The relationship between seed-based connectivity and appetitive traits derived from the AEBQ was examined with general linear model group-level inferences, focusing on brain regions involved in behavioural control and salience processing. Overeating susceptibility was associated with stronger rs-FC between the right inferior frontal gyrus and the posterior cingulate/precuneus, as well as greater coupling between limbic/peri-limbic areas and reward–salience as well as prefrontal-control regions. In contrast, undereating vulnerability was associated with enhanced connectivity between right hippocampus and left opercular–insular regions. Finally, food fussiness was associated with the coupling between bilateral superior-frontal and prefrontal regions. Our findings suggest that increased rs-FC, specifically between regions involved in executive control, decision making, salience, reward evaluation and self-referential processing, predict attitudes toward food and eating that may increase individual susceptibility to EDs and obesity in healthy adults.