Saccadic Eye Movements in Anorexia Nervosa

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Ophthalmology

Background:

• Anorexia Nervosa (AN) has a high mortality rate, with unclear underlying factors.
• Neurobiological underpinnings of AN are gaining research interest.
• Saccadic eye movement tasks, useful in other psychiatric illnesses, have not been studied in AN.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in saccadic eye movement task performance between individuals with AN and healthy controls.
• To explore the neurobiological correlates of AN using eye-tracking and fMRI.

Main Methods:

• 24 females with AN and 25 healthy controls participated.
• Participants performed memory-guided, self-paced, and interleaved prosaccade/antisaccade/no-go saccade tasks.
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used during task performance.

Main Results:

• AN participants showed significantly shorter prosaccade latency compared to controls.
• Individuals with AN made more inhibitory errors on the memory-guided saccade task.
• No significant differences were found in antisaccade, no-go saccade, self-paced saccade performance, or fMRI results between groups.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest altered saccadic eye movement control in AN.
• A potential role for GABA in the superior colliculus is implicated in AN psychopathology.