title: Brain activation during the perception of stressful word stimuli concerning interpersonal relationships in anorexia nervosa patients with high degrees of alexithymia in an fMRI paradigm.
abstract: Several studies have reported that anorexia nervosa (AN) patients have high levels of alexithymia. However, relatively little is known about the underlying neurobiological relationships between alexithymia and AN. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the brain responses in 30 AN patients and 20 healthy women during the processing of negative words concerning interpersonal relationships. We investigated the relationship between alexithymia levels and brain activation in AN. AN patients showed significant activation of the orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and medial prefrontal cortex while processing negative words concerning interpersonal relationships, as compared to the processing of neutral words. Moreover, the subjective rating of unpleasantness with negative words and neural activities in the amygdala, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) negatively correlated with the level of alexithymia in AN. Our neuroimaging results suggest that AN patients tend to cognitively process negative words concerning interpersonal relationships, resulting in activation of the prefrontal cortex. Lower activation of the amygdala, PCC and ACC in response to these words may contribute to the impairments of emotional processing that are hallmarks of alexithymia. Functional abnormalities associated with alexithymia may be involved in the emotional processing impairments in AN patients.
authors.affiliation: Health Service Center, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan. miyakechare@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Yoshie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miyake
authors.forename: Yasumasa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Keiichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Onoda
authors.forename: Naoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shirao
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Shigeto
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamawaki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood*; D011932:Reading; D012016:Reference Values; D012660:Semantics; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen