Advances in the neurobiology of eating disorders.
OBJECTIVE
To systematize new neurobiological findings on the cause and treatment of eating disorders.


RESULTS
The conceptual framework of the cause of eating disorders has undergone great changes in the past decades. Recently, the National Institute of Mental Health proposed a new set of criteria for research purposes--the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). We aim to structure this study as much as possible using these constructs across biological units of analysis, summarizing new findings. Brain imaging techniques have become sophisticated in identifying brain circuits related to illness behaviour and to fundamental traits such as reward and social processing. Genetic studies have moved from candidate gene studies onto genome-wide association studies; however, the field needs to cooperate to collect larger samples in order to benefit from this approach. Hormonal changes as the results of starvation or as underlying factors for behavioural changes still receive attention in both animal and human studies. Advances made in neuropsychology show problems in cognition (set shifting and central coherence) and in other RDoC domains. Some of these findings have been translated into treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
New biological models are being developed which explain causal and maintaining factors. The RDoC construct may be used to systematize these findings.
aRintveld Centre for Eating Disorders, Altrecht Mental Health Institute, Zeist & University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands bSection of Eating Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK.
Annemarie
A
van Elburg
Janet
J
Treasure
D035841:Behavioral Research / Q000379:methods; D025461:Feedback, Physiological / Q000502:physiology; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009420:Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*