Brain Neurodevelopmental Changes in Anorexia Nervosa

From a neurodevelopmental perspective, any brain and cognitive alteration in patients with anorexia nervosa (and, in general, in patients with psychiatric disorders) has to be considered in the context of individual age and age of the onset of the disorder. In this chapter, we review the evidence in favor of a neurodevelopmental approach in the study of brain morphological features in patients with anorexia nervosa. Moreover, we report preliminary data about alterations in developmental trajectories of several brain morphological measures, such as gray and white matter volumes, cortical thickness, fractional anisotropy, gyrification, and fractal dimension. Our data, in agreement with the literature, suggest that white matter appears to be more vulnerable to the prolonged effects of malnutrition than other volumetric and morphological brain characteristics.