The eye-blink reflex magnitude to the startle-defense noise during the Sound Only and Own Body trials for both groups of participants.

<p>The eye-blink reflex magnitude to the startle-defense noise during the Sound Only and Own Body trials for both groups of participants.</p

The skin conductance response to the startle-defense noise in the Bulimia (BN) and Control (CN) groups during the Sound Only trial (A) and the Own Body trial (B) presented first, and the Own Body trial (C) and the Sound Only trial (D) presented second.

<p>In general, the BN group showed a larger response to both trial types, irrespective of the presentation order. Also, when both trials were presented second (C and D), the amplitude of the response decreased significantly after Median 2 in the BN and HC groups, suggesting a habituation effect. However, at the start of this second presentation (Median 1), the response was larger for the Own Body trial than for the Sound Only trial, and for the BN group compared to the HC group, indicating less habituation.</p

The general characteristics of participants.

<p>Values are means (S.D.).</p><p>*The bulimia nervosa (BN) group was composed of 7 women conforming to the BN-purging subtype and 23 women conforming to the BN-non-purging subtype.</p><p>Note: BN  =  bulimia nervosa; HC  =  healthy control; BMI  =  body mass index; BITE  =  Bulimic Investigatory Test, Edinburgh; BSQ  =  Body Shape Questionnaire.</p

The means (and standard errors of the means) of Valence, Arousal, and Dominance ratings during the Sound Only trial and the Own Body trial.

<p>Note: BN  =  bulimia nervosa group; HC  =  healthy control group.</p

The heart-rate response to the startle-defense noise in the Bulimia (BN) and Control (CN) groups during the Sound Only trial (A) and the Own Body trial (B) presented first, and the Own Body trial (C) and the Sound Only trial (D) presented second.

<p>The typical cardiac defense response pattern was observed only in the response to the Sound Only trial presented first (A). In the Own Body trial presented first, the healthy control (HC) group showed no response, whereas the bulimia nervosa (BN) group showed the initial acceleration-deceleration pattern followed by a return to baseline (B). When both trials were presented second, the response pattern did not appear (C and D).</p

Demographic characteristics of the sample.

<p>Demographic characteristics of the sample.</p

"Affective space."

<p>Each dot represents an IAPS or an OLAF image as a function of its mean pleasure (y axis) and arousal (x axis) ratings.</p

SAM ratings across IAPS and OLAF picture categories for pleasure (2a), arousal (2b), dominance (2c), and food cravings (2d).

<p>Erotica, neutral objects, and mutilations prompted the typical patterns in the dimensions of pleasure, arousal, and dominance. For foods, pleasure and arousal jointly provided the more reliable description of the emotional impact of specific food categories, distinguishing more clearly than the other dimensions between sweet and savory high-calorie foods and low-calorie fruits and vegetables. On the contrary, as in our previous work [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0158991#pone.0158991.ref017" target="_blank">17</a>], food cravings were less capable of pinpointing the emotional impact of different food categories.</p

Participants characteristics.

<p>Descriptive statistics (N and mean (standard deviation)) for some basic characteristics of the sample (age, BMI, hunger) and for personality traits (Food Craving-Trait, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0114515#pone.0114515-CepedaBenito1" target="_blank">[39]</a>; Self-Esteem, using a Spanish adaptation of Rosenberg's scale <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0114515#pone.0114515-Echebura1" target="_blank">[40]</a>, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0114515#pone.0114515-Rosenberg1" target="_blank">[41]</a>; Sensitivity to Reward/Sensitivity to Punishment, <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0114515#pone.0114515-Torrubia1" target="_blank">[42]</a>). Self-reported hunger was assessed before the rating procedure began, as both a dichotomous “yes/no” variable (“Are you hungry right now?”) and as a continuous variable, using a 1–9 Likert scale (“On a 1 to 9 scale, where 1 means ‘no hunger at all’ and 9 means ‘a lot of hunger’, how much hunger do you feel right now?”).</p><p>Descriptive statistics are provided separately for boys and girls.</p><p>Participants characteristics.</p

Affective Space.

<p>Bidimensional plot of each affective or food image as a function of its mean valence and arousal ratings. Each point in the plot represents the valence and arousal ratings for an IAPS (red, gray, and blue) or food picture (plotted in different colors, based on food category). The position within the “affective space” of all food and IAPS pictures display the “boomerang” shape repeatedly reported in emotion research. Regression lines are plotted separately for appetitive (valence ratings>5) and defensive contents (valence ratings <5). All food and pleasant images are located on the upper arm of the boomerang, assumed to reflect the appetitive motivational system, while fewer unpleasant images are located in the lower arm of the boomerang, corresponding to the defensive motivational system. Among the food pictures, it can be appreciated that pictures depicting vegetables lie closer to neutral contents while pictures depicting sweet high-fat foods are located closer to pleasant IAPS images.</p