Increased anterior cingulate cortex response precedes behavioural adaptation in anorexia nervosa

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

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Abstract

Patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) are characterised by increased self-control, cognitive rigidity and impairments in set-shifting, but the underlying neural mechanisms are poorly understood. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to elucidate the neural correlates of behavioural adaptation to changes in reward contingencies in young acutely ill AN patients. Thirty-six adolescent/young adult, non-chronic female AN patients and 36 age-matched healthy females completed a well-established probabilistic reversal learning task during fMRI. We analysed hemodynamic responses in empirically-defined regions of interest during positive feedback and negative feedback not followed/followed by behavioural adaptation and conducted functional connectivity analyses. Although overall task performance was comparable between groups, AN showed increased shifting after receiving negative feedback (lose-shift behaviour) and altered dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) responses as a function of feedback. Specifically, patients had increased dACC responses (which correlated with perfectionism) and task-related coupling with amygdala preceding behavioural adaption. Given the generally preserved task performance in young AN, elevated dACC responses specifically during behavioural adaption is suggestive of increased monitoring for the need to adjust performance strategies. Higher dACC-amygdala coupling and increased adaptation after negative feedback underlines this interpretation and could be related to intolerance of uncertainty which has been suggested for AN.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)42066-42076
Number of pages11
JournalScientific Reports
Volume7
Publication statusPublished - 13 Feb 2017
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

researchoutputwizard legacy.publication#78961
researchoutputwizard legacy.publication#79418
Scopus 85012293995
PubMed 28198813
ORCID /0000-0002-2864-5578/work/159170739
ORCID /0000-0003-2132-4445/work/159171200
ORCID /0000-0002-5112-405X/work/159171601
ORCID /0000-0001-5398-5569/work/159171647

Keywords

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