title: Increased BOLD signal in the fusiform gyrus during implicit emotion processing in anorexia nervosa.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The behavioural literature in anorexia nervosa (AN) has suggested impairments in psychosocial functioning and studies using facial expression processing tasks (FEPT) have reported poorer recognition and slower identification of emotions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used alongside a FEPT, depicting neutral, mildly happy and happy faces, to examine the neural correlates of implicit emotion processing in AN. Participants were instructed to specify the gender of the faces. Levels of depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms and eating disorder behaviour were obtained and principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to acquire uncorrelated variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  fMRI analysis revealed a greater blood-oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response in AN in the right fusiform gyrus to all facial expressions. This response showed a linear increase with the happiness of the facial expression and was found to be stronger in those not taking medication. PCA analysis revealed a single component indicating a greater level of general clinical symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Neuroimaging findings would suggest that alterations in implicit emotion processing in AN occur during early perceptual processing of social signals and illustrate greater engagement on the FEPT. The lack of separate components using PCA suggests that the questionnaires used might not be suited as predictive measures.
authors: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychological Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
authors: Leon
authors: L
authors: Fonville
authors: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Neuroimaging, London, United Kingdom.
authors: Vincent
authors: V
authors: Giampietro
authors: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychosis Studies, London, United Kingdom ; Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience Lab, Ilia University, Tblisi, Georgia.
authors: Simon
authors: S
authors: Surguladze
authors: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Neuroimaging, London, United Kingdom ; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, United Kingdom.
authors: Steven
authors: S
authors: Williams
authors: King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychological Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
authors: Kate
authors: K
authors: Tchanturia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D004644:Emotions; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Eating disorders; Emotion; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Medication; Social perception