Altered functional connectivity in binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa: A resting-state fMRI study.

Introduction: The etiology of bulimic-type eating (BTE) disorders such as binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN) is still largely unknown. Brain networks subserving the processing of rewards, emotions, and cognitive control seem to play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of eating disorders. Therefore, further investigations into the neurobiological underpinnings are needed to discern abnormal connectivity patterns in BTE disorders.

Neural Food Reward Processing in Successful and Unsuccessful Weight Maintenance.

Objective: Weight loss maintenance is one of the biggest challenges in behavioral weight loss programs. The present study aimed to examine metabolic influences on the mesolimbic reward system in people with successful and unsuccessful long-term weight loss maintenance.

Methods: Thirty-three women with obesity at least 6 months after the completion of a diet were recruited: seventeen women were able to maintain their weight loss, whereas sixteen showed weight regain.

Integration of homeostatic signaling and food reward processing in the human brain.

Background: Food intake is guided by homeostatic needs and by the reward value of food, yet the exact relation between the two remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of different metabolic states and hormonal satiety signaling on responses in neural reward networks.

Methods: Twenty-three healthy participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing a task distinguishing between the anticipation and the receipt of either food- or monetary-related reward.

Inhibitory Control and Hedonic Response towards Food Interactively Predict Success in a Weight Loss Programme for Adults with Obesity.

Objective: Low inhibitory control and strong hedonic response towards food are considered to contribute to overeating and obesity. Based on previous research, the present study aimed at examining the potentially crucial interplay between these two factors in terms of long-term weight loss in people with obesity.

Methods: BMI, inhibitory control towards food, and food liking were assessed in obese adults prior to a weight reduction programme (OPTIFAST® 52).

Neural signature of behavioural inhibition in women with bulimia nervosa.

Background: Impaired inhibitory control is considered a behavioural phenotype in patients with bulimia nervosa. However, the underlying neural correlates of impaired general and food-specific behavioural inhibition are largely unknown. Therefore, we investigated brain activation during the performance of behavioural inhibition to general and food-related stimuli in adults with bulimia nervosa.

Neural signature of food reward processing in bulimic-type eating disorders.

Clinical observations and similarities to addiction suggest heightened reward sensitivity to food in patients with bulimic-type eating (BTE) disorders. Therefore, we investigated the expectation and receipt of food reward compared with monetary reward in patients with BTE. Fifty-six patients with BTE (27 patients with binge eating disorder and 29 with bulimia nervosa) and 55 matched healthy control participants underwent event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing both food and monetary incentive delay tasks.

Reward-related decision making in eating and weight disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence from neuropsychological studies.

Eating disorders (EDs) and overweight/obesity (OW/OB) are serious public health concerns that share common neuropsychological features and patterns of disturbed eating. Reward-related decision making as a basic neurocognitive function may trans-diagnostically underlie both pathological overeating and restricted eating. The present meta-analysis synthesizes the evidence from N=82 neuropsychological studies for altered reward-related decision making in all ED subtypes, OW and OB.

Neural dissociation of food- and money-related reward processing using an abstract incentive delay task.

Food is an innate reward stimulus related to energy homeostasis and survival, whereas money is considered a more general reward stimulus that gains a rewarding value through learning experiences. Although the underlying neural processing for both modalities of reward has been investigated independently from one another, a more detailed investigation of neural similarities and/or differences between food and monetary reward is still missing. Here, we investigated the neural processing of food compared with monetary-related rewards in 27 healthy, normal-weight women using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Impaired Cross-Talk between Mesolimbic Food Reward Processing and Metabolic Signaling Predicts Body Mass Index.

The anticipation of the pleasure derived from food intake drives the motivation to eat, and hence facilitate overconsumption of food, which ultimately results in obesity. Brain imaging studies provide evidence that mesolimbic brain regions underlie both general as well as food-related anticipatory reward processing. In light of this knowledge, the present study examined the neural responsiveness of the ventral striatum (VS) in participants with a broad BMI spectrum.

Difficulties in emotion regulation across the spectrum of eating disorders.

Theoretical models consider difficulties in emotion regulation (ER) as central trans-diagnostic phenomena across the spectrum of eating disorders (ED). However, there is a lack of studies directly comparing ED subtypes regarding ER problems. Furthermore, patients with anorexia nervosa-restricting type (AN-R) and patients with AN-binge/purge type (AN-BP) have usually been merged into one overall AN group in previous research on ER.

Inhibitory control in bulimic-type eating disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

The aim of this meta-analysis was to summarise data from neuropsychological studies on inhibitory control to general and disease-salient (i.e., food/eating, body/shape) stimuli in bulimic-type eating disorders (EDs).

Inhibitory control and decision making under risk in bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder.

Objective: To investigate neuropsychological mechanisms of impulsivity in patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge-eating disorder (BED).

Method: Nineteen BN patients and 31 age- and body-mass-index (BMI)-matched healthy controls (c-BN) as well as 54 overweight and obese BED patients and 43 age- and BMI-matched healthy controls (c-BED) were investigated using an inhibitory control task (stop signal task, SST) and a decision-making under risk task (game of dice task, GDT).

Results: Compared to c-BN, BN patients demonstrated significant greater stop signal reaction times in the SST, but no differences for the frequency of risky decisions in the GDT.

Familial glucocorticoid deficiency type 1 due to a novel compound heterozygous MC2R mutation.

Objective: Description of the clinical, biochemical and genetic features of a Polish patient with familial glucocorticoid deficiency.

Methods: Detailed clinical investigation, hormonal analysis and sequencing of the coding region of the melanocortin 2 receptor (MC2R) gene in this patient.

Results: We report on a 3-month-old boy with familial glucocorticoid deficiency who presented at the age of 3 months with skin hyperpigmentation, muscle weakness, mild jaundice and constipation.