Social Processing in Eating Disorders: Neuroimaging Paradigms and Research Domain Organizational Constructs

Social and environmental factors have been related to both symptom expression of disordered eating in individuals and changes in the prevalence of eating disorders (EDs) in populations. Neural differences in processing social information may contribute to EDs. This review assesses the evidence for aberrant neural responses during social processing in EDs.

This review examines how constructs within the social processing domain have been evaluated by neuroimaging paradigms in EDs, including communication, affiliation, and understanding of both oneself and others. Differences related to social processing in EDs include altered processing for self-relevant stimuli, in the context of identity, valence, expectations, and affiliative relationships. Future work is needed to integrate how differences in processing social stimuli relate to alterations in cognitive control and reward as well as specific disordered eating symptoms.