Associations between EDI-2 scores and brain activity in AN patients during rejection feedback.

<p>Color bars represents T value. Images are displayed in neurological convention (left is left). Scatter plots represent Pearson's correlations between EDI-2 scores and the extracted mean eigenvalues in each one of the significant clusters. A results table is included, showing peak coordinates of each cluster and their corresponding statistics.</p

Self and other body perception in anorexia nervosa: The role of posterior DMN nodes

<p><b>Objectives:</b> Body image distortion is a core symptom of anorexia nervosa (AN), which involves alterations in self- (and other’s) evaluative processes arising during body perception. At a neural level, self-related information is thought to rely on areas of the so-called default mode network (DMN), which, additionally, shows prominent synchronised activity at rest.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> Twenty female patients with AN and 20 matched healthy controls were scanned using magnetic resonance imaging when: (a) viewing video clips of their own body and another's body; (b) at rest. Between-group differences within the DMN during task performance were evaluated and further explored for task-related and resting-state-related functional connectivity alterations.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> AN patients showed a hyperactivation of the dorsal posterior cingulate cortex during their own-body processing but a response failure to another’s body processing at the precuneus and ventral PCC. Increased task-related connectivity was found between dPCC–dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and precuneus–mid-temporal cortex. Further, AN patients showed decreased resting-state connectivity between the dPCC and the angular gyrus.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> The PCC and the precuneus are suggested as key components of a network supporting self–other-evaluative processes implicated in body distortion, while the existence of DMN alterations at rest might reflect a sustained, task-independent breakdown within this network in AN.</p

Diagram of the Social Judgment Task used in the fMRI session.

<p>Participants received social feedback based on the willingness to be met by other participants. Each facial stimulus (represented in by ovals instead of the originally presented faces) was presented for a total of 8 second-blocks, with an overlapping feedback symbol during the last 6 seconds. Acceptance, rejection or no-feedback (control condition) was indicated by a happy, sad, or neutral draw of a face. Originally presented images were contained in a preexisting face database: Martinez AM, Benavente R. The AR Face Database CVC Tech. Report #24 [Internet]. 1998. Available: <a href="http://www2.ece.ohio-state.edu/~aleix/ARdatabase.html" target="_blank">http://www2.ece.ohio-state.edu/~aleix/ARdatabase.html</a>.</p

Within and between-group brain activations during acceptance and rejection feedback.

<p>Brain hyperactivations (i.e. contrast acceptance/rejection>control condition) are depicted in yellow and deactivations (i.e. contrast acceptance/rejectionAN patients and for the comparison AN patients>controls. Color bars represents T value, only for between-group comparisons. Images are displayed in neurological convention (left is left).</p

Interactions between Sensitivity to Reward and brain activations during the acceptance condition.

<p>Color bars represents T value. Images are displayed in neurological convention (left is left). Scatter plots represent Pearson's correlations between sensitivity to reward scores and the extracted mean eigenvalues in each relevant cluster: A. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. B. Left orbitofrontal-anterior insula cortex. C. Right orbitofrontal-anterior insula cortex. D. Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. A results table is included, showing peak coordinates of each cluster and their corresponding statistics. (): Two outliers were detected based on the Tukey’s Outlier Filter. Although depicted in the figure, they were removed from correlation analyses.</p

Demographic and clinical description of the subjects included in the sample.

<p>BMI: Body mass index. EDI-2: Eating Disorders Inventory-2. LSAS: Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. HDRS: Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. HARS: Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale.</p><p>* Patients received at least one week of supervised meals and hydration before the MRI, and were scanned in the afternoon, 2–4 hours after lunch.</p><p>Demographic and clinical description of the subjects included in the sample.</p