ReviewFrontiers in human neuroscience2016
Neurobiology of Anorexia Nervosa: Serotonin Dysfunctions Link Self-Starvation with Body Image Disturbances through an Impaired Body Memory.
Review in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Neural Correlates of Body Image Processing in Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa: An Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis of fMRI Studies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- A meta-analytic investigation of grey matter differences in anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2022Pooled it
- Theta burst stimulation of extrastriate body area for body perception in anorexia nervosa: a randomized controlled trial.Translational psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Gut microbiota contributions to anorexia nervosa pathogenesis: insights from the activity-based anorexia model.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Article
- Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy for Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa: Clinical Considerations and Emerging Models of Care.Current psychiatry reports · 2026Review
- Review
- Deep learning predicts DNA methylation regulatory variants in specific brain cell types and enhances fine mapping for brain disorders.Science advances · 2025Article
- Does Body Memory Exist? A Review of Models, Approaches and Recent Findings Useful for Neurorehabilitation.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Comparison among anorexia nervosa adolescents with or without previous overweight, obese, and healthy adolescents.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- The Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Anorexia Nervosa: A Narrative Review.Nutrients · 2023Review
- Review
- Article
- The role of developmental caregiving programming in modulating our affiliation tendency and the vulnerability to social anxiety and eating disorders.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Article
- Neural processing of self-touch and other-touch in anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum condition.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2022Article
- Lived body and the Other's gaze: a phenomenological perspective on feeding and eating disorders.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2021Article
- Article
- Executive functioning and spatial processing in anorexia nervosa: an experimental study and its significance for the allocentric lock theory.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2020Article
- Peripheral serotonin transporter DNA methylation is linked to increased salience network connectivity in females with anorexia nervosaJournal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN · 2020Article
- Does the recall of caregiver eating messages exacerbate the pathogenic impact of shame on eating and weight-related difficulties?Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The etiology of anorexia nervosa (AN) is still unclear, despite that it is a critical and potentially mortal illness. A recent neurobiological model considers AN as the outcome of dysfunctions in the neuronal processes related to appetite and emotionality (Kaye et al., 2009, 2013). However, this model still is not able to answer a critical question: What is behind body image disturbances (BIDs) in AN? The article starts its analysis from reviewing some of the studies exploring the effects of the serotonin systems in memory (episodic, working, and spatial) and its dysfunctions. The review suggests that serotonin disturbances may: (a) facilitate the encoding of third person (allocentric) episodic memories; (b) facilitate the consolidation of emotional episodic memories (e.g., teasing), if preceded by repeated stress; (c) reduce voluntary inhibition of mnestic contents; (d) impair allocentric spatial memory. If we discuss these results within the interpretative frame suggested by the "Allocentric Lock Hypothesis" (Riva, 2012, 2014), we can hypothesize that altered serotoninergic activity in AN patients: (i) improves their ability to store and consolidate negative autobiographical memories, including those of their body, in allocentric perspective; (ii) impairs their ability to trigger voluntary inhibition of the previously stored negative memory of the body; (iii) impairs their capacity to retrieve/update allocentric information. Taken together, these points suggest a possible link between serotonin dysfunctions, memory impairments and BIDs: the impossibility of updating a disturbed body memory using real time experiential data-I'm locked to a wrong body stored in long term memory-pushes AN patients to control body weight and shape even when underweight.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.