Neurobiological Status at Initial Presentation Predicts Neuropsychological Functioning in Early Onset Anorexia Nervosa at Four-Year Follow Up

Abstract

This study explores whether neurobiological status (indexed by regional cerebral blood flow) at initial presentation predicts neuropsychological status at four-year follow up in a sample of children with early onset anorexia nervosa. Neuropsychological assessment was conducted on 15 females four years after their initial treatment, and matched controls. At follow up there were significant differences between subgroups (based on neurobiological status at initial presentation) and matched controls in long-term visual memory and cognitive inhibition. This study offers preliminary evidence that neurobiological abnormalities at initial presentation predict neuropsychological status at follow up, suggesting a distinct neurodevelopmental subtype of early onset anorexia nervosa.

A Systematic Review of Central Coherence in Young People with Anorexia Nervosa

“…Four studies did not use Booth's [14], method to score the ROCFT, but instead reported the accuracy score for the delayed recall. Frampton et al, [28] reported significant differences between the hypoperfusion AN groups and the HC group in delayed visual recall of the ROCFT with AN group performing worse (p=0.001, d=2.35, huge effect). There were no differences in performance between the normal perfusion AN group and the HC group.…”

“…The ROCFT was used in 6 studies [21,22,24,[26][27][28]. The methods for scoring the ROCFT varied between studies with the most consistently used method of scoring was Booth's (2006) where by the order and style indices are calculated and contribute to a central coherence index (CCI).…”

“…The methods for scoring the ROCFT varied between studies with the most consistently used method of scoring was Booth's (2006) where by the order and style indices are calculated and contribute to a central coherence index (CCI). This method was adopted by four studies [21,22,24,27,28], is presented as two separate studies, as the AN sample was divided into two subgroups. The subgroups (hypo-perfusion and normal-perfusion) were based on neurobiological status reflecting results from a brain scan that measured regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF).…”

Neuropsychological Functioning in Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa

“…However, due to the huge number of variables, it is difficult to demonstrate the correlation between brain and functional changes [56]. In the case of AN, there is a preliminary study in which patients at an early stage were evaluated, and it was found that the neurobiological abnormalities may predict neuropsychological difficulties during follow-up [57]. This could be an indication that some neuropsychological disorders appear previously, so the weight of the disposition and the consequences of each type of ED should be clarified.…”

Restoring connection in the face of disconnection: an integrative approach to understanding and treating anorexia nervosa

“…Alexithymia (Bagby et al, 1994;Taylor & Bagby, 1988) Difficulty in detecting emotional signals from self (Harrison, Sullivan, Tchanturia, & Treasure, 2010;Rastam et al, 1997;Troop et al, 1995) Difficulty in detecting emotional signals from others (Harrison et al, 2010;Kucharska-Pietura et al, 2004;Zonnevijlle-Bender, van Goozen, CohenKettenis, van Elburg, & van Engeland, 2002) Poor IA (Garner, 2004;Garner, Olmsted, & Polivy, 1983) Feeling confused and/or fearful and non-accepting about one's own and others' emotional responses (Corstorphine, Mountford, Tomlinson, Waller, & Meyer, 2007;Fox, 2009;Ioannou & Fox, 2009) Difficulty in identifying visceral sensations related to hunger and satiety (Garner, 2004;Merwin, Zucker, Lacey, & Elliott, 2010) Anxiety, harm avoidance, and inhibition (Kaye, 2009;Schmidt & Treasure, 2006) Serotonergic disturbance Lilenfeld, Wonderlich, Riso, Crosby, & Mitchell, 2006) Dysfunction or 'disconnection' of neural networks converging upon the insula cortex Delayed visual recall and cognitive inhibition; misinterpreting others' facial expressions and responses; higher degree of negative attitude toward emotions and lower emotional expressiveness; slower time on facial recognition in comparison to healthy controls (Frampton, Hutchinson, Watkins, & Lask, 2012;Jansch et al, 2009;Kucharska-Pietura et al, 2004;Nunn et al, 2008;Pollatos et al, 2008) Numbing effects of starvation (Keys et al, 1950) Dietary restraint helps avoid uncomfortable bodily sensations (e.g. fullness) and affective experiences, for example, guilt and shame Schmidt & Treasure, 2006) 24 M. Tantillo et al…”