BIOLOGY 1090

Anorexia Nervosa: How Anorexia affects the brain

Stephanie George
17 April 2016

For a biology assignment, we had to research any topic that interested us, relating to biology. I
have always been interested in anorexia. There are so many theories and in general, assumptions
people make about anorexia. I wanted to find out how Anorexia affects the brain, though. I did not
believe it was just something someone could control, or choose to stop. Through my research I found
that there really is something triggered in the brain that causes anorexia. Anorexia is most common in
adolescent girls. And is the deadliest of all mental disorders.

There have been studies of brains of anorexics versus the brains of healthy humans. Studies
of the brains of people with anorexia have shown a number of complex brain circuits that show
changes in activity compared with healthy people. In the Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a self-control
center of the brain, is like a brake system to curb impulsive behaviors in anorexics. The DLPFC may
work overtime to keep people from giving in to the temptation to eat. In the visual cortex, where visual
information is processed, compared with healthy people, the visual cortices of anorexics may be more
active when thinking about eating food or performing cognitive tasks. In the ventral stratum, the part
of the brains reward circuitry, the ventral striata of anorexics may be hypersensitive to flavors healthy
people find pleasurable, such as sugar. This oversensitivity could affect patients enjoyment of food.
In the Insula, an involved self awareness of body states, such as pain and hunger. The insula is the
first brain region to register the taste of sweets. In anorexics, the insula may not correctly detect
sweat and other signals [Rosen 21].

It has been proven that anorexia is most common in girls ages 12-18. It is also hard to be
diagnosed at such young ages, until the have lost a considerable amount of weight. One girl in 250
may develop this disorder. Adolescents with anorexia are obsessed with thought about becoming
thinner, even though they are very skinny. The thoughts practically consume them. The disorder also
makes them strive for perfection, in all aspects of things. School, sports, anything they are trying to
accomplish [ROMEO].

Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality of any psychiatric disorder. It has an occurrence of
about .3% in young women. It is said that as the disease progresses, the person becomes intensely
afraid of getting fat and continues with their extreme diet or exercise to drop the weight. Some refuse
to eat, and misjudge their weight. Some live for years with the illness, and others bounce between
weight gain and loss. Though most anorexics gain back some weight within five years of becoming ill,
this is the deadliest of all mental disorders [Morris].

I found everything I learned very interesting. Especially that this is the deadliest of all mental
disorders. For me, this was hard to believe. I just figured things like depression, where there are so
many suicides and overdosing and things like that, that that would be higher on the list. I also didnt
realize what perfectionists anorexics were. While of course you see them striving for that in their
weight, you dont always think about them being straight-A students, or the best on the team kind of
people. I wonder if there is anything that could be done to trigger the parts of the brain affected, and
have them programmed differently.

Works Cited

Morris, Jane, and Sara Twaddle. Anorexia Nervosa. BMJ: British Medical Journal 334.7599 (2007):
894898. Web...

ROMEO, FELICIA F.. ANOREXIA NERVOSA: In the Middle School. Middle School Journal 15.4
(1984): 1618. Web...

Rosen, Meghan. The Anorexic Brain: Neuroimaging Improves Understanding of Eating

Disorder. Science News 184.3 (2013): 2024. Web...