Elevated cognitive control over reward processing in recovered female patients with anorexia nervosa

Partially restored resting-state functional connectivity in women recovered from anorexia nervosa

“…Abnormal responses of frontoparietal brain regions in recovered patients, potentially indicative of trait-like characteristics, were also reported in studies using monetary reward tasks. An earlier study by our group 5 found elevated activation of the dlPFC during anticipation of monetary rewards, failure to deactivate this region when feedback about the reward was presented and increased task-related connectivity between the dlPFC and OFC. Similarly, Wagner and colleagues 7 reported that recovered patients showed an increased involvement of prefrontal and parietal cortices in response to monetary rewards.…”

“…On the level of brain functioning, abnormal neural responses in the lateral-frontal brain circuitry have been associated with excessive cognitive control in acutely ill as well as recovered patients. [5][6][7] Despite these findings, we still lack understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying anorexia nervosa. One reason might be that the mainstay of studies using fMRI has been the identification of associations between specific brain regions with disorder-related dysfunction.…”

Reduced Inferior and Orbital Frontal Thickness in Adolescent Bulimia Nervosa Persists Over Two-Year Follow-Up

“…Many studies have attempted to identify trait and state markers of a range of psychiatric disorders, including anorexia nervosa (AN), 9–12 depression, 13 bipolar disorder, 14 and schizophrenia. 15 A trait marker of a disorder is typically conceptualized in these studies as a characteristic that distinguishes an individual with a disorder from healthy controls, is present before and predicts disorder onset, persists following total or partial remission, and is present in individuals with subclinical profiles.…”

Altered Medial Frontal Feedback Learning Signals in Anorexia Nervosa

“…For example, 21 neural response to punishment (monetary loss) has been found to be elevated in acutely ill 22 adolescents in corticostriatal regions involved in valuation and action selection (21). Alteration in 23 motivational and executive corticostriatal circuitry may also be associated with an impaired ability to 24 flexibly adapt to change (24) and an apparently excessive amount of self-control (5,25). 25 To gain a new perspective on feedback learning and decision-making in AN, we here apply 26 the methods of computational psychiatry (26) which associate neurobiological signals with defined 27 mechanistic steps, such as those needed to estimate the amount of reward associated with 28 alternative behavioral options based on previous feedback.…”

“…Alteration in 23 motivational and executive corticostriatal circuitry may also be associated with an impaired ability to 24 flexibly adapt to change (24) and an apparently excessive amount of self-control (5,25). 25 To gain a new perspective on feedback learning and decision-making in AN, we here apply 26 the methods of computational psychiatry (26) which associate neurobiological signals with defined 27 mechanistic steps, such as those needed to estimate the amount of reward associated with 28 alternative behavioral options based on previous feedback. Compared to conventional analysis 29 methods, this approach avoids i) associating neurobiological signals with subjective reports of 30 patients (which depends on their ability to self-reflect and adequately verbalize mood states or 31 experiences) and ii) the limitations of purely descriptive measures, such as error rates.…”