Blunted neural response to implicit negative facial affect in anorexia nervosa

TY - JOUR

T1 - Blunted neural response to implicit negative facial affect in anorexia nervosa

AU - Leppanen, Jenni

AU - Cardi, Valentina

AU - Paloyelis, Yannis

AU - Simmons, Andy

AU - Tchanturia, Kate

AU - Treasure, Janet

PY - 2017/7/20

Y1 - 2017/7/20

N2 - Background: People with anorexia nervosa (AN) have difficulties in a wide range of social-emotional processes. Previous work suggests atypical involvement of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), amygdala, insula, and fusiform gyri during social-emotional processing in AN. Methods: Twenty women with AN and twenty healthy comparison (HC) women were presented with happy, fearful, and neutral faces during a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Group differences were investigated in the following regions of interest: lateral PFC, amygdala, insula, and fusiform gyri. Results: The HC participants showed significantly increased recruitment of the ventrolateral PFC and amygdala in the fearful > neutral contrast relative to the AN participants. The AN participants showed a significantly increased recruitment of a small cluster in the right posterior insula in the happy > neutral contrast. Conclusions: These findings are in line with the hypothesis that people with AN have a blunted response to negative and atypical exaggerated response to positive emotionally provoking stimuli.

AB - Background: People with anorexia nervosa (AN) have difficulties in a wide range of social-emotional processes. Previous work suggests atypical involvement of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), amygdala, insula, and fusiform gyri during social-emotional processing in AN. Methods: Twenty women with AN and twenty healthy comparison (HC) women were presented with happy, fearful, and neutral faces during a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Group differences were investigated in the following regions of interest: lateral PFC, amygdala, insula, and fusiform gyri. Results: The HC participants showed significantly increased recruitment of the ventrolateral PFC and amygdala in the fearful > neutral contrast relative to the AN participants. The AN participants showed a significantly increased recruitment of a small cluster in the right posterior insula in the happy > neutral contrast. Conclusions: These findings are in line with the hypothesis that people with AN have a blunted response to negative and atypical exaggerated response to positive emotionally provoking stimuli.

KW - anorexia nervosa

KW - emotion processing

KW - fMRI

KW - blunted response

KW - fear

U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.07.010

DO - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.07.010

M3 - Article

SN - 0301-0511

VL - 128

SP - 105

EP - 111

JO - Biological Psychology

JF - Biological Psychology

ER -