Jia-Ni Wang: Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 95 Yong An Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, China.
Miao Wang: Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China.
Guo-Wei Wu: CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Wei-Hua Li: Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 95 Yong An Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, China.
Zi-Ling Lv: Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Qian Chen: Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 95 Yong An Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, China.
Zheng-Han Yang: Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 95 Yong An Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, China.
Xiao-Hong Li: Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Zhen-Chang Wang: Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 95 Yong An Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, China.
Zhan-Jiang Li: Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. li_zhanjiang@vip.sina.com.
Peng Zhang: Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 95 Yong An Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, China. zpqz1021@foxmail.com.
Li-Rong Tang: Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. tangl_@163.com.
PURPOSE: Bulimia nervosa (BN) is characterized by recurrent binge-eating episodes and inappropriate compensatory behaviors. This study investigated alterations in resting-state surface-based neural activity in BN patients and explored correlations between brain activity and eating behavior. METHODS: A total of 26 BN patients and 28 healthy controls were enrolled. Indirect measurement of cerebral cortical activity and functional connectivity (FC) analyses were performed in Surfstat. A principal component analysis (PCA) model was used to capture the commonalities within the behavioral questionnaires from the BN group. RESULTS: Compared with the healthy control group, the BN group showed decreased surface-based two-dimensional regional homogeneity in the right superior parietal lobule (SPL). Additionally, the BN group showed decreased FC between the right SPL and the bilateral lingual gyrus and increased FC between the right SPL and the left caudate nucleus and right putamen. In the FC-behavior association analysis, the second principal component (PC2) was negatively correlated with FC between the right SPL and the left caudate nucleus. The third principal component (PC3) was negatively correlated with FC between the right SPL and the left lingual gyrus and positively correlated with FC between the right SPL and the right lingual gyrus. CONCLUSION: We revealed that the right SPL undergoes reorganization with respect to specific brain regions at the whole-brain level in BN. In addition, our results suggest a correlation between brain reorganization and maladaptive eating behavior. These findings may provide useful information to better understand the neural mechanisms of BN. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: V, descriptive study.
