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Demand‐specific alteration of medial prefrontal cortex response during an inhibition task in recovered anorexic women
Author(s) -
Oberndorfer Tyson A.,
Kaye Walter H.,
Simmons Alan N.,
Strigo Irina A.,
Matthews Scott C.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/eat.20750
Subject(s) - prefrontal cortex , psychology , functional magnetic resonance imaging , inhibitory postsynaptic potential , neuroscience , inhibitory control , stop signal , anterior cingulate cortex , cingulate cortex , cognition , central nervous system , electrical engineering , engineering , latency (audio)
Objective: It is well known that individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) are inhibited and over‐controlled. This study investigated a prefrontal‐cingulate network that is involved in inhibitory control. Method: To avoid the confounds of malnutrition, 12 recovered (RAN) subjects were compared to 12 matched control women (CW) using a validated inhibition task (i.e., a stop signal task) during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results: Consistent with the a priori hypothesis, RAN subjects showed altered task‐related activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a critical node of the inhibitory control network. Specifically, whereas RAN and CW showed similar mPFC acitivity during trials when inhibitory demand was low (i.e., easy trials), RAN relative to CW showed significantly less mPFC activation as inhibition trials became more difficult (i.e., hard trials), suggesting a demand‐specific modulation of inhibitory control circuitry in RAN. Discussion: These findings support a neural basis for altered impulse control symptoms in AN © © 2010 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2011; 44:1–8)