AUTHOR=Wang Jia-ni , Tang Li-rong , Li Wei-hua , Zhang Xin-yu , Shao Xiao , Wu Ping-ping , Yang Ze-mei , Wu Guo-wei , Chen Qian , Wang Zheng , Zhang Peng , Li Zhan-jiang , Wang Zhenchang 

TITLE=Regional Neural Activity Abnormalities and Whole-Brain Functional Connectivity Reorganization in Bulimia Nervosa: Evidence From Resting-State fMRI

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroscience

VOLUME=Volume 16 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2022.858717

DOI=10.3389/fnins.2022.858717

ISSN=1662-453X

ABSTRACT=The management of eating behavior in bulimia nervosa (BN) patients is a complex process, and BN involves activity in multiple brain regions that integrate internal and external functional information. This functional information integration occurs in brain regions involved in reward, cognition, attention, memory, emotion, smell, taste, vision and so on. Although it has been reported that resting-state brain activity in BN patients is different from that of healthy controls, the neural mechanisms remain unclear and need to be further explored. Based on the psychological characteristics of patients with BN and the abnormal brain functional activities revealed by previous neuroimaging studies, in this study, we investigated alterations in regional neural activity and functional connectivity (FC) in patients with BN in the resting state and to explore correlations between brain activities and eating behavior. We found that the left insula and bilateral inferior parietal lobule (IPL), as key nodes in the reorganized resting-state neural network, had altered FC with other brain regions associated with reward, emotion, cognition, memory, smell/taste, and vision-related functional processing, which may have influenced restrained eating behavior. These results could provide a further theoretical basis and potential effective targets for neuropsychological treatment in patients with BN.