Altered striatal response to reward in bulimia nervosa after recovery.
OBJECTIVE
It is possible that disturbances of systems modulating reward may contribute to a vulnerability to develop an eating disorder.


METHODS
This hypothesis was tested by assessing functional magnetic resonance brain imaging response to a monetary reward task known to activate the anterior ventral striatum (AVS), a region implicated in motivational aspects toward stimuli. To avoid the confounding effects of malnutrition, 10 women who had recovered from bulimia nervosa (BN) were compared with 10 healthy comparison women (CW).


RESULTS
For the AVS, CW distinguished positive and negative feedback, whereas recovered BN women had similar responses to both conditions. In addition, these groups had similar patterns of findings for the dorsal caudate.


CONCLUSIONS
We have previously shown that individuals recovered from anorexia nervosa (AN) also had altered striatal responses and difficulties in differentiating positive and negative feedback. Thus BN and AN individuals may share a difficulty in discriminating the emotional significance of a stimulus.
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Angela
A
Wagner
Howard
H
Aizenstein
Vijay K
VK
Venkatraman
Amanda
A
Bischoff-Grethe
Julie
J
Fudge
J Christopher
JC
May
Guido K
GK
Frank
Ursula F
UF
Bailer
Lorie
L
Fischer
Karen
K
Putnam
Walter H
WH
Kaye
D000328:Adult; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D030141:Feedback, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009042:Motivation; D012016:Reference Values; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult