ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Behav. Neurosci.
Sec. Motivation and Reward
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2025.1653807
This article is part of the Research TopicDecision making and its pathologies: a translational animal-to-human overviewView all 3 articles
Evidence for Food-Related and Non-Food-Related Maladaptive Preference in a Mouse Model of Binge Eating Disorder
Provisionally accepted
- 1Center for Advanced Behavioral Research (CABR), School of Psychology, University of New York in Prague (UNYP), Londýnska 41, Prague 2, Czech Republic, Prague, Czechia
- 2Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Viděnska 1830, Prague, Czech Republic., Prague, Czechia
- 3First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Kateřinská 32, Prague, Czech Republic., Prague, Czechia
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Rising numbers of binge eating disorder (BED) cases and excessive associated economic costs, together with the absence of efficient treatment strategies, highlight the importance of research in this area. To date, numerous studies have investigated the role of aberrant motivation in compulsive, maladaptive feeding behaviors. However, other aspects of maladaptive preference towards foods, possibly involving risk-based decision-making processes, are not yet fully elucidated. In this research, two types of environmental stressors — food-related and non-food-related — are explored in their ability to model compulsive behavior towards palatable food in mice. Results from the behavioral experiments suggest that both types of stressors, when paired with the availability of highly palatable food, can produce aberrant motivation towards such food. These findings were subsequently supported by data obtained from cortisol concentration analysis in subjects.
Keywords: Binge Eating Disorder, maladaptive decision-making/preference, environmental stressors, cortisol levels, palatable food
Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 08 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Vajdová, Ježková, Procházková, Roubalová and Patrono. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Enrico Patrono, epatrono@unyp.cz
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