Neural Correlates of Self Body-shape Recognition in Anorexia Nervosa Mental

Neural Correlates of Self Body-shape Recognition in Anorexia Nervosa, an fMRI Activation Study

Body Image distortion is a key diagnostic feature for Anorexia Nervosa. Patients suffering from Anorexia Nervosa tend to perceive themselves as fatter than they are. This bias might be at the origin of a reinforcement of anorectic behavior which might alter medical care. The objective of this study is to identify neural correlates of self-recognition in Anorexia Nervosa. Patients are hypothesized to activate the self-recognition network when seeing images of a fatter body shape than their own.

Patients suffering from Anorexia Nervosa and control subjects (matched by age and study level) are recruited in medical care facilities in Lille's Metropolis. They are asked to identify their body shape when being presented with 3 different stimuli, i.e.real (RBS), estimated (EBS) and neutral body shape (NBS), in a functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) machine. While answering to this identification paradigm, we hoped to identify modifications in the self body-recognition network.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Providing informed, dated and signed consent (for minors, consent must be signed by both parents)
• With medical insurance
• With normal vision
• Only for the AN Group : Diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa (AN) restrictive for at least one year and with a Body Masse index (BMI) between 14 and 18
• Only for the control Group : BMI between 18 and 25 and without any psychiatric disorder

Exclusion Criteria:

• Pregnant or breast-feeding women
• With antecedent or current neurologic disease
• With antecedent or current ophthalmologic disease
• Contraindication for IRMf