Altered Medial Frontal Feedback Learning Signals in Anorexia Nervosa
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
Background In their relentless pursuit of thinness, individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) engage in maladaptive behaviors (restrictive food choices and overexercising) that may originate in altered decision making and learning. Methods In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we employed computational modeling to elucidate the neural correlates of feedback learning and value-based decision making in 36 female patients with AN and 36 age-matched healthy volunteers (12–24 years). Participants performed a decision task that required adaptation to changing reward contingencies. Data were analyzed within a hierarchical Gaussian filter model that captures interindividual variability in learning under uncertainty. Results Behaviorally, patients displayed an increased learning rate specifically after punishments. At the neural level, hemodynamic correlates for the learning rate, expected value, and prediction error did not differ between the groups. However, activity in the posterior medial frontal cortex was elevated in AN following punishment. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the neural underpinning of feedback learning is selectively altered for punishment in AN.
Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 235-243 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Biological Psychiatry |
| Volume | 83 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2018 |
| Peer-reviewed | Yes |
External IDs
| Scopus | 85030837625 |
|---|---|
| ORCID | /0000-0002-2864-5578/work/142233427 |
| ORCID | /0000-0003-2132-4445/work/142236301 |
| ORCID | /0000-0002-5112-405X/work/142242673 |
| ORCID | /0000-0001-5398-5569/work/150329433 |
Keywords
Keywords
- Anterior cingulate cortex Bayesian inference Computational modeling fMRI Hierarchical models Probabilistic reversal learning