Examining heart rate variability as an indicator of top-down inhibitory control over emotions and eating behaviors among individuals with and without binge eating.

Guilt increases prior to objective binge-eating episodes (OBE) and decreases following OBE, suggesting that OBE may function to regulate negative affective states. Rapid eating, a common feature of OBE, may be an observable indication of difficulty regulating eating. Heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of parasympathetic activity, is an indicator of top-down inhibitory control and indicates emotion regulation attempts. We aimed to test the effect of guilt on consumption rate and change in HRV among individuals with (+) and without (-) OBE.