Overlapping Neural Circuitry Links Cognitive Flexibility and Activity-Based Anorexia

Abstract

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex illness that is primarily characterized by abnormal restrictive feeding behavior and a dangerously low body mass index and that primarily affects young women and girls (1). AN is strongly associated with several cognitive traits that predate the onset of illness, including impaired cognitive flexibility, which is defined as the inability to modify cognitive strategies and behavior to adapt to changing environmental demands. In AN, perseverative thinking and rigid behavior, including preoccupations with food, body shape, and compulsive exercise in the pursuit of thinness, are hallmarks of cognitive inflexibility.