Objective: Abnormalities in emotion processing are increasingly discussed in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). In addition, food avoidance and attentional biases in the context of food are important issues in the investigation of eating disorder pathology. The aim of this study was to investigate visual attention in reaction to emotional pictures and food stimuli with eye-tracking technology. Furthermore, it should be investigated, if there were differences between adolescent and adult patients associated with the chronification of the disorder. Changes of the effects during the inpatient treatment should also be considered. Method: 41 female AN patients and 38 controls (43 adults and 36 adolescents) were presented with 50 disorder specific food pictures and emotional stimuli (neutral, positive, negative). Their task was to evaluate valence and arousal of each stimulus. An eye-tracking camera registered fixation times within and outside of specific regions of interest. In another experiment, they were presented with 20 pairs of a high caloric and a low caloric stimulus each. Intelligence, eating disorder pathology and general psychopathology were assessed by tests and questionnaires. AN patients performed the experiment twice (i.e. before and after inpatient treatment). Results: Valence and arousal ratings for the emotional pictures were comparable for the group of AN patients and controls. High caloric stimuli were rated more negative in valence and with higher arousal by AN patients compared to controls. Between the age groups significant differences concerning ratings of picture categories neutral, positive and low caloric were found which were not disorder specific. Valence ratings of categories high and low caloric changed significantly during the course of treatment toward the neutral value. All participants fixated longer within the ROIs than within the rest of the pictures. The relative fixation times of the controls for the low and high caloric stimuli did not differ. In contrast, among the patients, longer fixations were measured for the high caloric stimuli. In total, low caloric stimuli were fixated significantly longer than high caloric stimuli in the ”pairs” experiment. The AN patients fixated the low caloric stimuli longer compared to controls. The lower the BMI, the longer the participants fixated the ROIs of low caloric pictures. Also regarding eye tracking measures, there were no differences between adolescent and adult patients. After the inpatient treatment, the difference in fixation duration between the high and low caloric stimulus became smaller. Conclusions: AN patiens showed an attional bias towards disorder specific stimuli (food pictures). If the patiens direct their attention more or less towards high caloric stimuli seems to depend on the context. Altogether, the results may indicate aversion against high caloric food stimuli, while the effects were stronger for the ratings than for the eye-tracking. There were not found any indications for a deviation in emotion regulation. Although some differences were observed between adolescents and adults, the result pattern for adolescent and adult patients was similar and, thus, not to be related to the chronification of the disorder. Because of the non-controlled setting, it can´t be differentiated if the changes after the inpatient treatment represent therapeutic effects or whether they reflect repetition of the test. Even though further research is required the findings of the study may contribute to a better understanding of anorexia nervosa.