Functional brain alterations in anorexia nervosa: a scoping review

Tone Seim Fuglset; Nils Inge Landrø; Deborah Lynn Reas; Øyvind Rø

doi:10.1186/s40337-016-0118-y

Functional brain alterations in anorexia nervosa: a scoping review

J Eat Disord. 2016 Nov 28:4:32. doi: 10.1186/s40337-016-0118-y. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Tone Seim Fuglset¹, Nils Inge Landrø², Deborah Lynn Reas³, Øyvind Rø⁴

Affiliations

¹ Regional Department for Eating Disorders, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Ullevål, Oslo, Norway.
² Department of Psychology, Clinical Neuroscience Research Group, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
³ Regional Department for Eating Disorders, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Ullevål, Oslo, Norway ; Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ Regional Department for Eating Disorders, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Ullevål, Oslo, Norway ; Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract

Background: Neuroimaging allows for the identification of brain abnormalities and alterations that are associated with anorexia nervosa (AN). We performed a scoping review to map out the extent and nature of recent research activity on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in individuals diagnosed with, or recovered from, AN (AN-REC).

Main text: A literature search of PubMed, Psychinfo and Embase was conducted using the search terms "anorexia nervosa" AND "functional magnetic resonance imaging." We included fMRI studies that involved a comparison between individuals with AN or AN-REC and healthy controls published in English language between 2010 and 2015. A total of 49 papers were included, regardless of the experimental stimuli or paradigm.

Conclusions: Findings varied considerably across studies, reflecting methodological differences in study design, such as sample differences and experimental paradigms. Collectively, studies published during the past five years suggest altered activation in regions related to the fronto-striato and the limbic circuits, which are theorized to have an important role in the pathophysiology of AN.

Keywords: Anorexia nervosa; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Scoping review.

Publication types

Review