Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA.
Psychiatry Res. 2011 May 31;192(2):109-16. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.12.006. Epub 2011 Apr 17.
The eating disorder anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with high anxiety. The brain mechanisms that drive those behaviors are unknown. In this study we wanted to test whether brain white matter (WM) integrity is altered in AN, and related to heightened anxiety. Sixteen adult women with AN (mean age 24 ± 7 years) and 17 healthy control women (CW, mean age 25 ± 4 years) underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the brain. The DTI brain images were used to calculate the fractional anisotropy (FA) of WM tracts, which is a measure for WM integrity. AN individuals compared to CW showed clusters of significantly reduced FA (p<0.05, corrected) in the bilateral fimbria-fornix and the fronto-occipital fasciculus, as well as the posterior cingulum WM. In the AN group, Harm Avoidance was predicted by FA in the left and right fimbria-fornix. Those findings were not due to WM volume deficits in AN. This study indicates that WM integrity is abnormal in AN in limbic and association pathways, which could contribute to disturbed feeding, emotion processing and body perception in AN. The prediction of Harm Avoidance in AN by fimbria-fornix WM integrity suggests that this pathway may be mechanistically involved in high anxiety in AN.
进食障碍神经性厌食症（AN）与高度焦虑有关。导致这些行为的大脑机制尚不清楚。在这项研究中，我们想测试 AN 患者的大脑白质（WM）完整性是否改变，以及是否与升高的焦虑有关。16 名成年 AN 女性（平均年龄 24 ± 7 岁）和 17 名健康对照女性（CW，平均年龄 25 ± 4 岁）接受了大脑弥散张量成像（DTI）检查。DTI 脑图像用于计算 WM 束的各向异性分数（FA），这是 WM 完整性的一个衡量指标。与 CW 相比，AN 个体在双侧穹窿-海马伞和额枕束以及后扣带回 WM 中显示出明显的 FA 降低簇（p<0.05，校正）。在 AN 组中，回避危害的程度可以由左、右穹窿-海马伞的 FA 预测。这些发现不是由于 AN 中的 WM 体积缺陷引起的。这项研究表明，在边缘和联想通路中，AN 患者的 WM 完整性异常，这可能导致 AN 中进食障碍、情绪处理和身体感知障碍。穹窿-海马伞 WM 完整性可以预测 AN 中的回避危害，这表明该通路可能在 AN 中的高焦虑中具有机制作用。
