Evaluation of spontaneous regional brain activity in weight-recovered anorexia nervosa

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Maria Seidel, Technische Universität Dresden; Daniel Geisler, Technische Universität Dresden; Viola Borchardt, Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory; Joseph A. King, Technische Universität Dresden; Fabio Bernardoni, Technische Universität Dresden; Charlotte Jaite, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin; Veit Roessner, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus Dresden; Vince Calhoun, Georgia State University; Martin Walter, Clinical Affective Neuroimaging Laboratory; Stefan Ehrlich, Technische Universität Dresden
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-12-01
• Publisher: Emory University Libraries
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2020
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-01081-0
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Translational Psychiatry
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 395
• End Page: 395
• Keywords: Humans; Brain; Anorexia Nervosa; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Female; Brain Mapping; Gray Matter
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health; Health Sciences, Radiology; Biology, Neuroscience

Abstract

Whereas research using structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) reports sizable grey matter reductions in patients suffering from acute anorexia nervosa (AN) to be largely reversible already after short-term weight gain, many task-based and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) studies suggest persistent brain alterations even after long-term weight rehabilitation. First investigations into spontaneous regional brain activity using voxel-wise resting-state measures found widespread abnormalities in acute AN, but no studies have compared intrinsic brain activity properties in weight-recovered individuals with a history of AN (recAN) with healthy controls (HCs). SMRI and RSFC data were analysed from a sample of 130 female volunteers: 65 recAN and 65 pairwise age-matched HC. Cortical grey matter thickness was assessed using FreeSurfer software. Fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFFs), mean-square successive difference (MSSD), regional homogeneity (ReHo), voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VHMC), and degree centrality (DC) were calculated. SMRI and RSFC data were analysed from a sample of 130 female volunteers: 65 recAN and 65 pairwise age-matched HCs. Cortical grey matter thickness was assessed using FreeSurfer software. Fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), mean-square successive difference (MSSD), regional homogeneity (ReHo), voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VHMC), and degree centrality (DC) were calculated. Abnormal regional homogeneity found in acute AN seems to normalize in recAN, supporting assumptions of a state rather than a trait marker. Aberrant fALFF values in the cerebellum and the infertior temporal gyrus could possibly hint towards trait factors or a scar (the latter, e.g., from prolonged periods of undernutrition), warranting further longitudinal research.