Fig. 5

A model of cognitive control of appetite. a The original Yerkes-Dodson Law [76], showing that optimal performance occurs when medium arousal is present, but that both low and high arousal can be detrimental to performance. Reproduced via open access Wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yerkes-Dodson_wet.png; b) Updated model to depict cognitive control of appetite, applicable to restricting anorexia nervosa and addictive behaviours such as SUD and binge eating. Low appetitive processes (e.g. due to satiation with substance/food or hijacked by negative emotion such as anxiety or anger) coincide with low cognitive control. High appetitive processes (e.g. reward sensitivity, real or perceived) coincide with low cognitive control because either reward responses impinge on executive functioning or executive functioning is overloaded. Optimal cognitive control (e.g. self-regulation and effective cognitive-emotion neural interactions) is suggested to occur when appetitive drive is within the medium range