ERP correlates of self-referential processing moderate the association
between pubertal status and disordered eating in preadolescence
Abstract
Preadolescence is a critical period for the onset of puberty and
eating-related psycho-pathology. More advanced pubertal status is
associated with elevated eating pathology. However, it was unclear
whether this association was moderated by self-referential processing,
an important, modifiable cognitive risk for various forms of
psychopathology, including eating problems. Fur-ther, no study has
examined the neural correlates of self-referential processing in
relation to eating pathology. To address these gaps, we examined how the
association between pubertal status and disordered eating was moderated
by self-referential processing in a community sample of 115
nine-to-12-year-old preadolescents (66 girls; Mean age/SD =10.98/1.18
years; 87.5% White). Youths reported their pubertal status and
disordered eating behaviors and completed an ERP ver-sion of the
Self-Referent Encoding Task (SRET) to assess self-referential
processing. A Principal Component Analysis of the ERP data identified an
anterior late positive potential (LPP) in both the positive and negative
SRET conditions. The LPP in the positive condition moderated the
positive association between pubertal status and disordered eating
behaviors, such that this association was significant for youths with a
smaller LPP toward positive self-referential cues, but non-significant
for those showing a larger LPP toward positive self-referential cues.
These results suggest that a deeper processing of positive
self-referential information, indicated by a potentiated LPP, may weaken
the negative impact of pubertal status on disordered eating. Our
findings also suggest that enhancing positive self-referential
processing may be a useful tool in preventing the development of eating
pathology in preadolescents, especially for those with more advanced
pubertal status.