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Updated: Oct 29, 2025

Using the Activity-based Anorexia Rodent Model to Study the Neurobiological Basis of Anorexia Nervosa
Published on: October 22, 2015
Is there a hypothalamic basis for anorexia nervosa?
Virginie Tolle1, Nicolas Ramoz1, Jacques Epelbaum2
1INSERM U1266, Paris, France.
Abstract:
The hypothalamus has long been known to control food intake and energy metabolism through a complex network of primary and secondary neurons and glial cells. Anorexia nervosa being a complex disorder characterized by abnormal feeding behavior and food aversion, it is thus quite surprising that not much is known concerning potential hypothalamic modifications in this disorder. In this chapter, we review the recent advances in the fields of genetics, epigenetics, structural and functional imaging, and brain connectivity, as well as neuroendocrine findings and emerging animal models, which have begun to unravel the importance of hypothalamic adaptive processes to our understanding of the pathology of eating disorders.
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