Altered Sensorimotor Striatal Network Connectivity in Women With Anorexia Nervosa.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Brain Imaging

Background:

• Anorexia nervosa (AN) involves reward processing, cognitive control, and body image disturbances, suggesting striatal dysfunction.
• Underweight in AN may influence brain function, necessitating control for its acute effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the striatum in AN patients.
• Differentiate AN-related rsFC changes from effects of underweight.

Main Methods:

• Compared striatal rsFC in AN patients (n=39), normal weight healthy controls (NHC, n=31), and underweight healthy controls (UHC, n=22).
• Utilized theoretically selected striatal sub-regions for whole-brain rsFC analysis.
• Performed correlation analysis between rsFC and clinical measures in AN patients.

Main Results:

• AN patients exhibited increased striatal rsFC with the fronto-parietal network (FPN) compared to NHC.
• AN patients showed reduced striatal rsFC with sensorimotor and visual regions compared to both NHC and UHC.
• No significant correlations were found between striatal rsFC and clinical variables in AN patients.

Conclusions:

• Decreased striatal rsFC with sensorimotor and visual areas may represent illness-specific neural correlates in AN.
• These findings highlight potential neural markers for AN, independent of acute underweight effects.