Cortical Complexity in Anorexia Nervosa: A Fractal Dimension Analysis

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Psychiatry
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Fractal Dimension (FD) quantifies complex structures and shows promise in detecting neurological and psychiatric conditions.
• Cortical atrophy and morphological changes are observed in various psychiatric disorders.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate cortical morphology using FD in female patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN) compared to healthy controls (HC).
• To assess the sensitivity of FD to malnutrition severity and illness duration in AN.

Main Methods:

• High-resolution MRI scans were acquired for 58 female AN patients (38 acute, 20 recovered) and 38 HC.
• Cortical surface extraction was performed using FreeSurfer.
• FD was computed using the calcFD toolbox.

Main Results:

• Mean global FD was significantly lower in acute AN patients compared to HC (p < 0.001).
• Recovered AN patients showed no significant difference in global FD compared to HC.
• Parietal regions exhibited lower FD in both AN groups. In acute AN, FD correlated with age, BMI, and illness duration.

Conclusions:

• FD is a sensitive measure of cortical complexity alterations in Anorexia Nervosa.
• FD reflects the impact of malnutrition severity and duration on brain morphology.
• FD may serve as a valuable tool for assessing neurobiological changes in AN.