State or trait: the neurobiology of anorexia nervosa - contributions of a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Background: The understanding of the cerebral neurobiology of anorexia nervosa (AN) with respect to state- versus trait-related abnormalities is limited. There is evidence of restitution of structural brain alterations with clinical remission. However, with regard to functional brain abnormalities, this issue has not yet been clarified.

Neurobiological signature of intimacy in anorexia nervosa.

Background: Intimacy and psychosexual development represent core problems of anorexia nervosa (AN). Experiential and neurobiological evidence however is scarce.

Material And Methods: Thirty-one female AN patients were compared with 35 non-patients (NP) and 22 recovered participants (REC) by using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Frontocingular dysfunction in bulimia nervosa when confronted with disease-specific stimuli.

Objective: Bulimia nervosa (BN) is characterized by dysregulation of impulse control, in other words, uncontrolled eating. Functional neuroimaging studies have been sparse and have used variable methodologies.

Method: Thirteen medication-free female BN patients and 13 female healthy controls were investigated by functional magnetic resonance imaging using a disease-specific food paradigm.

Emotional perception in patients with eating disorders in comparison with depressed patients.

Objective: Emotion regulation is a key issue for many psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders, including eating disorders. Eating disordered patients (EDP) show high levels of depressive comorbidity, and there is much uncertainty about disorder-specific deficits. This study is aimed at delineating disorder-specific disturbances of emotional perception in EDP.

Amygdala hyperreactivity in restrictive anorexia nervosa.

Functional imaging studies had often investigated heterogeneous samples of anorexia nervosa (AN) patients with varying paradigms and methodologies that had resulted in divergent results. The present study aimed to examine these issues by studying a well-defined sample of restrictive AN patients with a disorder-specific paradigm which had been used previously. Subjects showed increased blood oxygen level dependent responses of the cingulate, frontal, insular and parietal cortices.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the anterior cingulate cortex in eating disorders.

The anterior cingulate cortex plays a key role in eating disorders (ED), but it remains an open question whether there are deviations of the neurochemistry of this region in patients with ED. Seventeen adult female patients with ED (10 with bulimia nervosa, 7 with anorexia nervosa) were compared to 14 matched female healthy controls using single voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy of the anterior cingulate cortex. Group comparisons did not reveal any differences between patients and controls, but a positive correlation between glutamate and myo-inositol signals with "drive for thinness" in patients with bulimia nervosa was found in exploratory correlation analyses.

Emotional perception in eating disorders.

Objective: It remains an open question whether there are basic emotional perception and emotional processing deficits in eating disorders (ED). The aim of this study was to explore deficits in emotional perception in restrictive anorexia nervosa (AN-R) and bulimia nervosa (BN), using visual emotional stimuli.

Method: Thirty-four patients with ED (19 with BN and 15 with AN-R) were compared with 25 controls.