title: Altered processing of rewarding and aversive basic taste stimuli in symptomatic women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: An fMRI study.
abstract: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have displayed a dysregulation in the way in which the brain processes pleasant taste stimuli in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). However, exactly how the brain processes disgusting basic taste stimuli has never been investigated, even though disgust plays a role in food intake modulation and AN and BN patients exhibit high disgust sensitivity. Therefore, we investigated the activation of brain areas following the administration of pleasant and aversive basic taste stimuli in symptomatic AN and BN patients compared to healthy subjects. Twenty underweight AN women, 20 symptomatic BN women and 20 healthy women underwent fMRI while tasting 0.292 M sucrose solution (sweet taste), 0.5 mM quinine hydrochloride solution (bitter taste) and water as a reference taste. In symptomatic AN and BN patients the pleasant sweet stimulus induced a higher activation in several brain areas than that induced by the aversive bitter taste. The opposite occurred in healthy controls. Moreover, compared to healthy controls, AN patients showed a decreased response to the bitter stimulus in the right amygdala and left anterior cingulate cortex, while BN patients showed a decreased response to the bitter stimulus in the right amygdala and left insula. These results show an altered processing of rewarding and aversive taste stimuli in ED patients, which may be relevant for understanding the pathophysiology of AN and BN.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples SUN, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessio Maria
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Monteleone
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples SUN, Naples, Italy; Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Scuola Medica Salernitana", Section of Neurosciences, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy. Electronic address: monteri@tin.it.
authors.forename: Palmiero
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Monteleone
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Scuola Medica Salernitana", Section of Neurosciences, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.affiliation: Biostructure and Bioimaging Institute, National Research Council, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prinster
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples SUN, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Umberto
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Volpe
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Reproductive and Dentistry Science, ENT Unit; "Federico II" University, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cantone
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples SUN, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pellegrino
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Scuola Medica Salernitana", Section of Neurosciences, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonietta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Canna
authors.affiliation: Department of Mental Health, A.S.L. NA1, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Milano
authors.affiliation: IRCCS SDN Istituto di Ricerca, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aiello
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry "Scuola Medica Salernitana", Section of Neurosciences, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Salle
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples SUN, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maj
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000523:psychology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D012201:Reward; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: Anorexia nervosa; Bulimia nervosa; Disgust; Reward; Taste; fMRI