Lower Gray Matter Volumes for Frontal Lobes and Insula in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa restricting type: Findings from an explorative Brain Morphometry Study

INTRODUCTION: Marked acute brain changes in anorexia nervosa (AN) are among the strongest structural brain changes that can be observed in any mental disorder. (Fig.1). Most of the studies have reported reduced brain volume and increased cerebrospinal fluid, as an effect of starvation on the brain in AN. Findings in neurobiology have shown that the most frequent traits in AN, seem to be associated with an altered serotoninergic neurotransmission. Neuroimaging studies have found a number of cerebral structures implicated in the clinical aspects of AN, like the frontal lobes, connected with deficits in executive functions and central coherence, the parietal cortex, correlated with body image distortions, the amigdala, related to anxiety, the striatum, connected with obsessive-compulsive behavior. It has been suggested also that the original cause for such dysfunctions could be a disconnections between these areas due to a malfunctioning of the insula, which plays a central role in orchestrating the signals regarding external environment and internal homeostasis