Altered Sensorimotor Striatal Network Connectivity in Women With Anorexia Nervosa

Objective: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with disturbances in reward processing, cognitive control, and body image perception, implicating striatal dysfunction. Evidence suggests that underweight may modulate brain function in AN. We aimed to investigate whole-brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the striatum in patients with AN while controlling for the acute effects of underweight.

Method: Using theoretically selected striatal sub-regions, whole-brain rsFC patterns of the striatum were compared among patients with AN (n = 39, BMI = 16.19 ± 1.48 kg/m²), normal weight healthy controls (NHC) (n = 31, BMI = 20.98 ± 1.72 kg/m²), and underweight healthy controls (UHC) (n = 22, BMI = 16.68 ± 0.69 kg/m²). Correlation analysis between rsFC and clinical measures was conducted for the patients with AN.

Results: Compared with the NHC group, AN patients showed increased striatal rsFC with the fronto-parietal network (FPN) and reduced striatal rsFC with sensorimotor and visual regions. Compared with the UHC group, AN patients exhibited reduced striatal rsFC solely with sensorimotor and visual regions. No significant correlations were found between striatal rsFC and clinical variables in the patients with AN.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that decreased striatal rsFC with sensorimotor and visual areas may represent illness-specific neural correlates in patients with AN.