Cortical sources of awake scalp EEG in eating disorders.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate quantitative EEG (qEEG) in anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) in comparison with healthy controls.


METHODS
Resting EEG was recorded in 30 healthy females (age: 27.1+/-5.5), 16-AN females (age: 26.4+/-9.5) and 12-BN females (age: 27.0+/-6.3). Cortical EEG sources (delta, theta, alpha 1, alpha 2, beta 1, beta 2) were modeled by LORETA solutions. The statistical analysis was performed considering the factors Group, power Band, and region of interest (central, frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal, limbic).


RESULTS
Alpha 1 sources in central, parietal, occipital and limbic areas showed a greater amplitude in Controls versus AN and BN groups. Alpha 2 sources in parietal, occipital and limbic areas showed a greater amplitude in Controls than in both AN and BN groups. Alpha 1 sources in temporal area showed a greater amplitude in Controls compared to both the BN and AN groups as well as in the BN group compared to AN group. Central alpha 1 source correlated significantly with BMI in patients.


CONCLUSIONS
These results support the hypothesis that eating disorders are related to altered mechanisms of cortical neural synchronization, especially in rolandic alpha rhythms.


CONCLUSIONS
To our knowledge this is the first study by LORETA able to detect modifications of cortical EEG activity in eating disorders.
Rodriguez
Guido
G
Section of Clinical Neurophysiology (DISEM), Department of Endocrinological and Metabolic Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy. guido@unige.it
Babiloni
Claudio
C
Brugnolo
Andrea
A
Del Percio
Claudio
C
Cerro
Fabrizio
F
Gabrielli
Filippo
F
Girtler
Nicola
N
Nobili
Flavio
F
Murialdo
Giovanni
G
Rossini
Paolo M
PM
Rossi
Davide Sebastiano
DS
Baruzzi
Chiara
C
Ferro
Antonio Maria
AM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012535:Scalp; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014054:Tomography / Q000379:methods