NCT03275545

Neural Correlates of Reward and Symptom Expression in Anorexia Nervosa

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 79 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Minnesota · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The objective of this study is to identify the patterns of brain activity in reward circuitry that promote symptoms of anorexia nervosa. This project will compare weight-restored individuals with anorexia nervosa to a non-eating disorder control group on reward brain circuitry patterns in response to typically rewarding cues (i.e., entertaining videos) and disorder-specific restrictive eating cues (i.e., low-fat food choice) using fMRI. In addition, this study will examine which neurobiological reward responses among weight-restored individuals with anorexia nervosa predict objective restrictive eating (measured by laboratory meal intake) and longitudinal risk of relapse one year later.

Detailed description

Aim 1: To compare patterns of brain activity in reward circuits to typically rewarding cues and disorder-specific cues between weight-restored individuals with anorexia nervosa and non-eating disorder controls Hypothesis 1a: Activity in reward circuitry will be elevated in response to typically rewarding cues in the non-eating disorder control group versus weight-restored anorexia nervosa group. Hypothesis 1b: Activity in reward circuitry will be elevated in response to disorder-specific in the weight-restored anorexia nervosa group versus the non-eating disorder control group. Aim 2: To specify the relationship between brain patterns related to reward and restrictive eating among weight-restored individuals with anorexia nervosa Hypothesis 2a: Lower reward circuit activity in response to typically rewarding cues will predict lower test meal intake for weight-restored anorexia nervosa group versus the non-eating disorder control group. Hypothesis 2b: Higher reward circuit activity in response to disorder-specific cues will predict lower test meal intake for the weight-restored anorexia nervosa group versus the non-eating disorder control group. Aim 3: To identify the brain patterns in reward circuitry associated with the risk of relapse among weight-restored individuals with anorexia nervosa in the year following weight-restoration. Hypothesis 3a: Lower reward circuit activity in response to typically rewarding cues will predict relapse in the weight-restored anorexia nervosa group. Hypothesis 3b: Higher reward circuit activity in response to disorder-specific cues will predict relapse in the weight-restored anorexia nervosa group.

Conditions

• Anorexia Nervosa

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	No intervention	No intervention is being examined in this study

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-02-28
• Primary completion: 2022-07-12
• Completion: 2022-08-01
• First posted: 2017-09-07
• Last updated: 2022-09-21

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States