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Cognitive Set‐Shifting in Anorexia Nervosa
Author(s) -
Shott Megan E.,
Filoteo J. Vincent,
Bhatnagar Kelly A.C.,
Peak Nicole J.,
Hagman Jennifer O.,
Rockwell Roxanne,
Kaye Walter H.,
Frank Guido K.W.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
european eating disorders review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.511
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1099-0968
pISSN - 1072-4133
DOI - 10.1002/erv.2172
Subject(s) - cognitive flexibility , anorexia nervosa , eating disorders , set (abstract data type) , psychology , flexibility (engineering) , affect (linguistics) , cognition , vulnerability (computing) , developmental psychology , set point , cognitive psychology , clinical psychology , psychiatry , statistics , mathematics , computer security , communication , control engineering , computer science , engineering , programming language
Objective Adult anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with inefficient cognitive flexibility and set‐shifting. Whether such inefficiencies also characterize adolescent AN is an important area of research. Method Adolescents with AN and matched controls were administered a computerized task that required initial learning of an explicit rule using corrective feedback and learning of a new rule after a set number of trials. Adult patients with AN and controls were also examined. Results Adolescents with AN did not differ from matched controls with respect to set‐shifting cost (decrease in performance after rule change), whereas adults with AN had significantly greater set‐shifting cost compared with controls. Discussion This study suggests that set‐shifting inefficiencies may not be a vulnerability factor for AN development in adolescents with AN, but might become an important aspect of the disorder at later age, and could point towards developmental neurobiologic brain changes that could affect AN at different ages. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.