ArticleJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2025
Food choice and neural reward systems in adolescents with anorexia nervosa and atypical anorexia nervosa.
Article in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- COVID-19-Related Stress and Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa: Early Detection, Similar Illness Course.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Annual Research Review: Neural mechanisms of eating disorders in youth - from current theory and findings to future directions.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Review
- Avoidance habit learning in adolescents and young women with anorexia nervosa: an fMRI study.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Exploring Habits in Anorexia Nervosa: Promise, Pitfalls, and Progress.Current psychiatry reports · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundAdolescence is a critical developmental period for the study of anorexia nervosa (AN), an illness characterized by extreme restriction of food intake. The maturation of the reward system during adolescence combined with recent neurobiological models of AN led to the hypothesis that early on in illness, restrictive food choices would be associated with activity in nucleus accumbens reward regions, rather than caudate regions identified among adults with AN.
methodsHealthy adolescents (HC, n = 41) and adolescents with AN or atypical AN (atypAN, n = 76) completed a Food Choice Task during fMRI scanning. Selection of high-fat foods and choice-related activation in nucleus accumbens and anterior caudate regions-of-interest (ROIs) were compared between individuals with AN/atypAN and HC. Associations were examined between choice-related activation and choice preferences among the AN group. Exploratory analyses examined associations between choice-related activation and psychological assessments among the patient group.
resultsAdolescents with AN or atypAN selected fewer high-fat foods than HC (t = -5.92, p < .001). Counter to predictions, there were no significant group differences in choice-related activation in the ROIs. Among individuals with AN or atypAN, choice-related neural activity in the anterior caudate was significantly negatively associated with high-fat food selections in the task (r = -.32, p = .024). In exploratory analyses, choice-related anterior caudate activation was positively associated with psychological measures of illness severity among patients (p's < .05, uncorrected).
conclusionsIn this large cohort of adolescents with AN/atypAN, there was no evidence of altered reward system engagement during food choice. While there was no group difference in choice-related caudate activation, the associations with choices and psychological measures continue to suggest that this neural region is implicated in illness. Longitudinal analyses will clarify whether neural variability relates to longer-term course.
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