# Longitudinal Assessment of Neural Circuits in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa

> **NIH NIH R01** · NEW YORK STATE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE DBA RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR MENTAL HYGIENE, INC · 2021 · $99,624

## Abstract

Original Project Summary R01 MH110445
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious mental illness that confers the highest mortality rate of any
psychiatric disorder. Current treatments are inadequate and no pharmacologic agents have
proven effective. A better understanding of the development and psychopathology of AN is
greatly needed. We propose a longitudinal, multimodal MRI study of reward and habit circuits in
youth (ages 14-18) with AN, compared with age-matched healthy controls (HC), followed over
two years. We focus on adolescence because this is a critical, yet understudied, period in AN.
Pathological dieting typically emerges during adolescence, and the course of AN is often
determined during this period with approximately half of teens showing full recovery, whereas
the rest endure persistent illness. Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms by which
some teens develop persistent AN, while others remit, is critical to developing the most effective
interventions.
 Our study will examine neural mechanisms guiding food choice and connectivity in
mesolimbic and habit-related circuits among youth with AN who continue with illness compared
with those who remit, and compared with HC. We will examine these neural circuits at baseline
and study their developmental trajectories. Our Food Choice Task captures restrictive intake, a
core behavioral disturbance in AN, and therefore we can directly examine the link between brain
activity and eating behavior. Using longitudinal, multimodal MRI at 3-time points, we will first test
whether the function and connectivity of mesolimbic reward and dorsal habit circuits predict the
longer-term course of AN. Second, we will examine longitudinal changes within these two neural
circuits of interest. We predict that at baseline, restrictive food choice in youth with AN will be
mediated by mesolimbic reward circuitry; however, at year-2 follow-up, in teens for whom the
disorder persists, restrictive food choice will be mediated by dorsal striatal habit circuitry. The
study will (i) chart the developmental trajectories of reward and habit circuits in youth with AN;
(ii) advance our understanding of the mechanisms by which AN persists to chronicity, and (iii)
help develop targets for novel therapeutic strategies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10332255
- **Project number:** 3R01MH110445-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK STATE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE DBA RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR MENTAL HYGIENE, INC
- **Principal Investigator:** Jonathan E Posner
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $99,624
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2017-04-07 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10332255

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10332255, Longitudinal Assessment of Neural Circuits in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa (3R01MH110445-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10332255. Licensed CC0.

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