Multimodal imaging of Neural Networks and Reward in Anorexia Nervosa
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Multimodal imaging in Anorexia Nervosa using fMRI and MEG: An investigation of Neural Networks, reward processing and habit formation during illness and after recovery.
IRAS ID
127207
Contact name
Rebecca Park
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford
Research summary
Anorexia Nervosa (AN) has the highest mortality of any psychiatric disorder and a paucity of evidence based treatments. Better understanding of the processes underpinning the disorder is essential to translate into novel treatments.
This is the central aim of the current study. One particularly challenging feature of AN is that individuals find the extreme control of eating and weight rewarding at the expense of normally rewards. These aberrant reward responses then become habitual , compulsive and extremely resistant to change. Current evidence suggests that the processing of rewarding stimuli is aberrant in AN and some abnormalities remain even after recovery.Our prior research in AN using behavioral tasks and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) suggests abnormalities in food reward processing and in resting state neural networks . We aim to further extend these findings using the complimentary cutting edge neuroimaging strategies of Magnetoencephalography (MEG), and fMRI in addition to behavioral measures of food reward and habit formation.
MEG and fMRI will be recorded in a no-task resting state condition, and compared between individuals currently suffering from AN, individuals recovered from AN and healthy controls. Using MEG and fMRI as complimentary techniques will further understanding of neural processes underpinning AN, and inform the development of treatments targeting these processes. We include a food reward task to investigate behavioural and neural aspects of aberrant food reward in AN under fMRI, and two behavioral tasks investigating aspects of habit formation. This will also allow us to examine associations between aberrant reward processing and habit formation and explore their neural basis.
This study is linked with a pilot study of Deep Brain Stimulation for severe AN , both funded by one MRC Confidence in Concept award. They involve different participants but share parallel measures. Results will be mutually informative and inform novel treatment development.
REC name
South Central - Oxford A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/SC/0395
Date of REC Opinion
16 Aug 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion