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Abstract
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Aims: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious psychiatric disorder marked by chronic caloric restriction, intense fear of weight gain, and body image distortion. Structural brain abnormalities, particularly in the cingulate cortex and precuneus, have been documented in adults with AN; however, little is known about these changes in adolescents or how they relate to the psychopathology of AN. This study investigates alterations in cortical surface area, thickness, and volume and examines their association with psychological measures in adolescent females with AN.
Methods: We assessed 23 adolescent females (ages 12–19) diagnosed with AN and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Each participant underwent high-resolution structural MRI and completed psychological assessments, including the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire for children and adolescents (PAQ-C), and Body Perception Questionnaire-Short Form (BPQ-SF). MRI data were processed using BIDScoin, fMRIPrep, and FreeSurfer, with statistical analyses employing permutation-based nonparametric methods and multiple regression to explore links between cortical metrics and psychological scores.
Results and Conclusions: Compared to controls, adolescents with AN exhibited a significant reduction in cortical thickness of the precuneus, which was negatively correlated with EDI-2, BAI, and BDI-II scores and positively correlated with BMI percentile. Specific EDI-2 and PAQ-C subscales emerged as significant predictors of precuneus thickness.These findings suggest that reduced cortical thickness in the precuneus may be a neurobiological marker of AN in adolescents, closely linked to its psychopathological features, and underscore the potential role of the precuneus in the disorder’s underlying mechanisms.
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