Archival ReportIncreased Neural Processing of Rewarding and Aversive Food Stimuli in Recovered Anorexia Nervosa
Section snippets
Participants
Fifteen women who had previously met DSM criteria (1) for anorexia nervosa and sixteen healthy control subjects were recruited for this study. Participants were recruited through advertisements. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the University of Oxford and Outer West London Research Ethics Committee. Written informed consent was obtained for all participants.
All participants underwent a screening process that involved a brief e-mail screening and a face-to-face assessment using
Participant Characteristics
The two groups were matched for age, IQ, BMI, and chocolate eating/liking (Table 1). There were no differences between the control group and the recovered anorexia nervosa group in the measures of anhedonia (Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale, Fawcett–Clarke Pleasure Scale), depression (Beck Depression Inventory), or anxiety (Trait Anxiety Inventory). However, the recovered group scored significantly higher on the EDE-Q (Table 1).
Ratings of Stimuli
Using a repeated-measures analysis of variance for the pleasantness,
Discussion
Our findings are the first to show that those recovered from anorexia nervosa have increased ventral striatal activity to the pleasant taste of chocolate compared with healthy control participants despite no difference in subjective experience. Furthermore, our results show that those recovered also have increased insula and caudate activity to the unpleasant conditions compared with healthy control subjects. This is consistent with recent research using food stimuli during acute anorexia
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