Multimodal Imaging of the Mesocortical System in Anorexia Nervosa

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious illness associated with substantial morbidity and a mortality rate among the highest of any psychiatric illness. Illness commonly develops in adolescence, and current treatments are disappointing, with up to 50% of patients requiring re-hospitalization within a year of discharge. Comorbidity rates are high, with up to 66% of individuals also suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). We have previously proposed a neurobehavioral model of AN, building from known mechanisms of OCD, suggesting that corticostriatal abnormalities, including the mesocortical system (MCS), underlie the highly obsessional characteristic of AN which, in turn, mediates rigid, ritualized eating behaviors that promote the underweight state. The MCS includes the ventral striatum (VS), and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). In a preliminary experiment, we successfully used a novel resting state functional connectivity MRI (rs-fcMRI) approach to demonstrate an inverse relationship between functional connectivity in the MCS and obsessional symptoms in individuals with OCD. Our early data suggest this finding in AN, as well. In this proposal, we are investigating a multimodal strategy that has not previously been applied to AN. We will examine functional connectivity (via rs-fcMRI) and white matter integrity (via DTI) and explore perfusion (via ASL). By combining imaging approaches, we will integrate functional and structural connectivity. We propose to study neurocircuitry in the acute phase of AN as well as after weight restoration to begin to evaluate the prognostic significance and stability of these findings. Specifically, we will evaluate whether individuals with AN, as compared with healthy peers, have reduced functional connectivity between the ventral striatum (VS) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) as measured by rs-fcMRI, reduced white matter integrity, as indexed by reduced fractional anisotropy (FA), in the orbitofrontal white matter, and reduced perfusion to the VS and OFC. We will measure whether MCS connectivity is associated with degree of obsessional symptoms, using an eating disorder specific obsessive-compulsive measure. We will study connectivity longitudinally, evaluating individuals with AN before and after acute treatment. In addition, we will collect preliminary data to investigate the relationshp between this potential biomarker and longer-term course. The proposed study takes an innovative approach to the study of AN by focusing on the MCS, and by implementing new neuroimaging techniques for the field. This approach has the significant advantage of evaluating the neural circuit as a whole, thereby improving inferences about neural functioning. This study will create a foundation for using these techniques in a large scale R01 that will be able to definitively identify neural biomarkers and integrate neuroimaging with clinical outcome. Thus the data from this study will provide a new foundation for a program of research in AN that investigates neural models as the basis for understanding and treating this devastating illness.