Susta Marek, Bizik Gustav, Yamamotova Anna, Petranek Svojmil, Kadochova Marie, Papezova Hana
Department of Public Health, St. Elisabeth University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Department of Psychiatry, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark.
Front Psychol. 2022 Oct 10;13:958501. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.958501. eCollection 2022.
The study aims to identify the differences in brain activity between participants with anorexia nervosa and healthy control using visual stimulus conditions combined with the quantitative dense-array EEG recording analysis method called Brain Activation Sequences (BAS).
23 participants with anorexia nervosa and 21 healthy controls were presented with visual stimuli, including the subject's facial expressions and body images. The 128-channel EEG data were processed using BAS and displayed as activity in up to 66 brain regions. Subsequent cluster analysis was used to identify groups of participants exhibiting area-specific activation patterns.
Cluster analysis identified three distinct groups: one including all healthy controls (HC) and two consisting of all participants with anorexia (AN-I with 19 participants and AN-II with four participants). The AN-I and AN-II groups differed in their response to treatment. Comparisons of HC vs. AN confirmed the dominance of the right cerebral hemisphere in participants with anorexia nervosa in two of the three reported conditions. The facial expressions condition, specifically the facial reaction expressing disgust, indicates the existence of a social attentional bias toward faces, whereas emotions remained undetected in participants. High limbic activity, medial frontal gyrus involvement, low fusiform cortex activity, and milder visual cortex activity in healthy controls compared to participants indicate that the facial expression stimulus is perceived by healthy subjects primarily as an emotion, not as the face itself. In the body image condition, participants showed higher activity in the fusiform gyrus and right insula, indicating activation of the brain's "fear network."
The study describes a specific pattern of brain activation in response to facial expression of disgust and body images that likely contributes to social-cognitive and behavioral impairments in anorexia. In addition, the substantial difference in the pattern of brain activation within the participants with AN and its association with treatment resistance deserves special attention because of its potential to develop a clinically useful prediction tool and identify potential targets for, for example, neuromodulatory treatments and/or individualized psychotherapy.
本研究旨在通过视觉刺激条件结合名为脑激活序列（BAS）的定量密集阵列脑电图记录分析方法，确定神经性厌食症患者与健康对照者大脑活动的差异。
向23名神经性厌食症患者和21名健康对照者呈现视觉刺激，包括受试者的面部表情和身体图像。使用BAS处理128通道脑电图数据，并显示为多达66个脑区的活动。随后进行聚类分析，以识别表现出区域特异性激活模式的参与者组。
聚类分析确定了三个不同的组：一个包括所有健康对照者（HC），另外两个由所有神经性厌食症患者组成（AN-I组有19名参与者，AN-II组有4名参与者）。AN-I组和AN-II组对治疗的反应不同。在报告的三种情况中的两种情况下，HC与AN的比较证实了神经性厌食症患者右半球的优势。面部表情条件，特别是表达厌恶的面部反应，表明存在对面部的社会注意力偏差，而参与者未检测到情绪。与参与者相比，健康对照者的边缘系统活动高、内侧前额叶回受累、梭状回皮质活动低以及视觉皮质活动较温和，这表明健康受试者主要将面部表情刺激视为一种情绪，而不是面部本身。在身体图像条件下，参与者在梭状回和右岛叶表现出更高的活动，表明大脑“恐惧网络”的激活。
该研究描述了对厌恶面部表情和身体图像做出反应时大脑激活的特定模式，这可能导致神经性厌食症患者的社会认知和行为障碍。此外，神经性厌食症患者大脑激活模式的显著差异及其与治疗抵抗的关联值得特别关注，因为它有可能开发出一种临床有用的预测工具，并确定例如神经调节治疗和/或个体化心理治疗的潜在靶点。
