*2.1. Participants*

A total of 424 participants were included in the present study: 341 women and 83 men, with a ratio similar to recent studies [6]. The ED group contained 190 women and 43 men, with a mean age of 30.52 (SD = 10.9), whereas the healthy control (HC) group (151 women and 40 men) had a mean age of 25.65 (SD = 8.5). In terms of the highest level of education, for the HC group, 5.8% attained a primary education, 56% attained a secondary education, and 38.2% attained a tertiary degree. For the ED group, 35.2% attained a primary education, 40.8% attained a secondary education, and 24% attained a tertiary degree. Table S1 (Supplementary Material) contains the sociodemographic characteristics of the groups at baseline. To avoid potential biases in the results, all the comparisons were adjusted for the covariates of age and education level at baseline. Patients with EDs were recruited from the Eating Disorders Unit at Bellvitge University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. All patients within the ED group met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, Philadelphia, PA, USA) [46] criteria for EDs, following standardized structured interviews. The ED group was composed of 85 patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) restrictive subtype, 41 patients with AN bulimic/purging subtype, 44 with bulimia nervosa (BN), 45 patients with binge eating disorder (BED), and 18 patients with other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED). Once diagnosed, they were asked to voluntarily participate in this study. Neuropsychological and clinical assessments were conducted in the first week of their treatment. The exclusion criteria for the HC group were a body mass index below 18.5 or above 25 and a lifetime history of EDs, according to a semi-structured interview and following DSM-5 diagnostic criteria.

Data were collected between May 2008 and November 2020. All participants were adults, received information about the procedure, and signed an informed consent form. All procedures were approved by the Ethical Committee of the Bellvitge University Hospital in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 as revised in 1983.
