Evoked emotions in anorexia nervosa: neural and behavioural correlates of social-emotional processing

People with anorexia nervosa (AN) have been reported to exhibit difficulties in production and reception of emotional communication. This may be linked to illness progression, but the neural mechanisms that underpin these difficulties remain uncertain. The present study aimed to replicate and further build on previous findings by examining evoked emotional responses in and outside the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) environment. In total, 141 women (71 AN, 70 healthy comparison) completed behavioural and functional MRI (fMRI) versions of evoked emotions tasks. In both tasks, participants were presented with positive, neutral, and negative emotional film clips, and they were asked to rate their mood after each one. The effects of group and film category on facial expressions, brain responses, and mood ratings were examined. The behavioural findings showed reduced positive facial affect and lower self-reported mood in response to positive film clips in women with AN. The fMRI task revealed no significant group differences but widespread activation of lateral occipital, parietal, middle and superior temporal, and superior frontal regions in response to the emotional videos. The behavioural findings replicate previously reported altered emotional responses in AN. However, the lack of group differences in brain responses to the emotional film clips raises questions about general difficulties in reception for emotional communication in AN. Task-related activation was observed in regions typically associated with the processing of naturalistic emotional stimuli, suggesting the task was valid.