What we do
About our project
Background
Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a debilitating psychiatric disorder and has the highest mortality rates of all psychiatric disorders. AN is characterized by a pronounced distortion in one’s body image coupled with an intense fear of gaining weight. In spite its seriousness, little is known about the etiology and underlying neurobiology of AN. Most likely this key symptoms of AN are decoded in specific networks in the brain. Thus, the key symptoms of AN that are shared among those with AN can be decoded within integrated brain networks.
Objectives
Our primary goal is to identify the brain networks that are aberrant in young women with AN and to use this network to predict women at risk for AN in a large population based sample. Our hypothesis is that it is not one node that is responsible for the distorted body image and key symptoms of AN, but that the distortion in body image is encoded within a specific network pattern in the brain, which we describe as an ‘Anorexia Brain Network Cascade,’ or ABNC.
Methods
Resting state fMRI images we acquired in order to extract functional features that could unveil the network properties of this population. Images were processed and preprocessed in harmony with the Generation R study. After, features of interest will be used in a deep learning model in order to quantify the differences in brain connectivity between AN participants and a typically developed population. These results will be replicated in an independent sample and applied to the Generation R sample to identify an at risk sample of early adolescents.
Our research focus
Functional alterations in Anorexia Nervosa
One of the best approaches to evaluate functional brain networks is via connectivity analyses using functional MRI (fMRI). Previous studies found altered connectivity in multiple brain regions, including the frontal, parietal, somatosensory, cingulate and occipital cortices, also known as the corticolimbic circuitry. These regions are involved in cognitive control, visuospatialand homeostatic integration. Aforementioned networks are linked to the main clinical symptoms of AN, including body image disturbances and impaired cognitive control.
The BRAVE cohort
This project is embedded in the BRAVE study, a longitudinal, case-control study with the main goal of identifying predictors of treatment response in a large sample of 12-to-22-year-old females with first-onset typical or atypical anorexia nervosa. The overall results of this study will allow us to develop more precise treatment strategies in order to provide more optimal treatment.
Funds & Grants
This work was supported by funding of Stichting tot Steun VCVGZ, the Sophia Foundation for Scientific Research (SSWO) (Grant Numbers: WAR22-65).
Collaborations
External collaboration
The Extracting the ABNC project is a collaboration between the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology, Erasmus MC-Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science at the Delft University of Technology, and the Section on Social and Cognitive Developmental Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
