Metacognition in individuals with a lifetime history of anorexia nervosa: a voxel based morphometrystudy.
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Objective: The aim of the current study was to provide a preliminary investigation of metacognition (MC) and global and regional cerebral volume in women with a lifetime history of Anorexia Nervosa (AN) compared to healthy controls (HC). In particular, we aimed to explore whether (1) MC was still affected in recovered AN patients (rec-AN) compared to HC and (2) prefrontal areas sustaining MC were morphometrically different in rec-AN compared to HC, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Method: Nine adult drug-free rec-AN females (age: M=23.22; SD=+5.91) and nine adult HC (age: M=23.33; SD=+2.67) underwent the psychometric assessment consisting of the Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ), the Metacognition Questionnaire (MCQ), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) and high resolution T1-weighted voxel based morphometric (VBM) MRI (224 contiguous slices, voxel size = 0.7×0.7×0.7, FOV=320×320, TR=20ms, TE=4.89ms, band = 130Hz/Px), using a 1.5 Tesla Siemens Magneton Avanto scanner. We used Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM) to characterize brain differences in gray matter volume between the groups. Local grey matter volume (GMV) differences between the two groups were detected using a Region of Interest (ROI) analysis and a Whole Brain Analysis to strengthen and widen the ROI's results (with p<0.001). Based on the evidence regarding the neural basis of metacognition [1], masks were created around twelve areas, mainly located in the frontal lobes. Mann–Whitney test was performed to compare TCQ, MCQ and TAS-20 scores between rec-AN and HC, with α set at < 0.05. Results: The analyses revealed that rec-AN and HC did not differ for both metacognitive abilities, alexithymic traits and global GM volumes. The Region of Interest (ROI) analysis showed reduced GMVs in the right Superior Frontal Gyrus (SFG) and increased GMVs in the Temporo-Parietal Junction (TPJ) and Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG) in rec-AN compared to HC. Besides, the Whole Brain Analysis (WBA) found that rec-AN, compared to HC, showed reduced GMVs in the Left Superior Parietal Lobule (SPL), the Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus (IFG), the Right Inferior Occipital Gyrus (IOG), the Left Fusiform Gyrus (FG) and the cerebellum's culmen but not in the DLPFC. Conclusion: The GMV reduction seems to be aspecifically distributed in different brain areas, as found in other VBM studies which investigated adult acute and weight-restored AN patients [2,3]. Several lines of evidence sustain that frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital and cerebellar regions are involved in body shape perception, cognitive and emotional processing, which are often impaired in AN [3]. However, there was no GM decrease in brain areas specifically supporting metacognitive functioning [1], which was not compromised in rec-AN. These findings suggest that clinical recovery (i.e. achievement of adequate body weight and remission of Eating Disorder psychopathology) may accompany the restoration of neurobiological underpinnings of ‘thinking about thinking’ processes, and that MC impairment may not represent a stable marker of AN. Differences in regional GM volume may be linked to the past starvation, but whether they are state or trait is unclear. These discrete brain volume differences provide candidate brain regions for further structural and functional study in people with Eating Disorders.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".