Department of Optometry & Vision Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Hum Brain Mapp. 2018 Nov;39(11):4385-4392. doi: 10.1002/hbm.24279. Epub 2018 Jul 2.
The neurobiological underpinnings of anorexia nervosa (AN) are unclear. White matter deficits have been described in the illness, but findings are inconsistent between studies. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in white matter microstructure in AN using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). It was hypothesised that people with AN, relative to a healthy control (HC) group, would show decreased functional anisotropy (FA) and increased mean diffusivity (MD) in the fornix and superior longitudinal fasciculus, consistent with previous literature. Analyses were conducted on 23 females with AN and 26 age- and gender-matched HCs using tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS). The results revealed widespread FA decreases and MD increases in the AN group. Our hypothesis was largely supported, although FA differences were not specifically found in the fornix. The findings suggest extensive differences in white matter structure in AN, which may contribute to AN pathophysiology.
神经性厌食症 (AN) 的神经生物学基础尚不清楚。该疾病存在白质缺陷的描述，但研究结果之间并不一致。本研究旨在使用弥散加权成像 (DWI) 研究 AN 患者的白质微观结构差异。研究假设，与健康对照组 (HC) 相比，AN 患者的穹窿和上纵束的功能各向异性 (FA) 降低，平均弥散度 (MD) 升高，这与之前的文献一致。使用基于束流的空间统计学 (TBSS) 对 23 名女性 AN 患者和 26 名年龄和性别匹配的 HC 进行了分析。结果显示，AN 组的 FA 值普遍降低，MD 值升高。我们的假设得到了很大程度的支持，尽管在穹窿中没有发现特定的 FA 差异。研究结果表明，AN 患者的白质结构存在广泛差异，这可能有助于 AN 的病理生理学。
