Brain development and neurocircuit modeling at the interface between genetic/environmental risk factors and eating disorders

Abstract

Research in the field of neuroimaging, connectomics and neuropsychology is growing in the field of eating disorders. However, few studies to date have attempted to explore the effects of malnutrition on the developmental trajectories of brain and cognition. In this presentation, I will review the recent advances of neuroscience research conducted by our group of research with a particular attention to the role of genetic and early environmental risk factors and to those aspects that have direct or indirect clinical implications. Neurodevelopmental trajectories of women with anorexia nervosa are probably influenced both by genetic and early environmental risk factors for these disorders and by the direct and indirect effects of malnutrition after the onset of the disease. In this presentation, I will discuss the evidence of this by means of a series of neuropsychological, functional and brain structural measures. Finally, although a lot of new knowledge is available in the neuroimaging of eating disorders, it is still difficult to translate research findings into practice and clinical implications. I will report about neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies that demonstrated that neuropsychological and brain morphological characteristics have a significant link with clinical characteristics and a predictive effect on the outcome.