Front Psychol. 2025 Jun 23;16:1583417. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1583417. eCollection 2025.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Difficulties in socio-emotional cognitive processing are a key feature in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN); however, the underlying neural processing, particularly longitudinal, is poorly understood. Compounding difficulties is the presence of overrepresented autistic characteristics, and it is unclear how these impact socio-emotional cognitive neural processing in individuals with AN.
METHOD: A total of 92 participants, including 65 individuals with AN and 27 controls, took part in a longitudinal assessment at two time points, approximately 2 years apart, by undertaking socio-emotional cognitive tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A multivariate approach was used to predict autistic characteristics from generated maps from the AN group.
RESULTS: A group-by-time interaction effect was demonstrated in several brain regions in response to tasks, with the regions with the strongest evidence being the right frontal operculum/pole. The multivariate approach revealed a wide distribution of brain regions contributing to autistic characteristics.
CONCLUSION: Neural changes over time in the right frontal operculum/pole potentially represent a compensatory mechanism for cognitive difficulties. Autistic characteristics in individuals with AN are instantiated and impact a wide distribution of neural regions, particularly during socio-emotional cognitive processing.
PMID:40625432 | PMC:PMC12230072 | DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1583417
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