Association of Brain Reward Response With Body Mass Index and Ventral Striatal-Hypothalamic Circuitry Among Young Women With Eating Disorders

Abstract

Key Points Question Is brain reward response associated with specific behaviors across the eating disorder diagnostic spectrum? Findings In this cross-sectional functional brain imaging study of 197 women with anorexia nervosa, other specified feeding and eating disorders, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder and a matched cohort of 120 healthy controls, brain salience response was significantly inversely correlated with body mass index and binge eating severity and positively correlated with ventral striatal-hypothalamic circuitry. Meaning Results of this study suggest that eating disorder behaviors change brain reward processing, which may alter food intake control circuitry and reinforce the individual’s eating disorder behavior.