Subcortical brain volume and cortical thickness in adolescent girls and women with binge eating

Objective: Alterations in brain structure have been implicated in the onset and acute phases of several forms of psychopathology. However, there is a dearth of research investigating brain structure in persons with binge eating, contributing to poor understanding of mechanisms associated with binge eating. Method: Adolescent girls and women (aged 14-35 years) with binge eating (n = 56) and group age-matched girls and women without binge eating (n = 26) completed structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans and interview-based and self-report assessments of eating disorder and general psychopathology. MRI data were processed using FreeSurfer. Analysis of covariance tested mean differences in subcortical volume and cortical thickness of a priori selected regions of interest between binge-eating and non-binge-eating groups, controlling for age, body mass index, purging frequency, depression, and medication use. Exploratory partial correlations tested associations between brain structure and eating disorder symptoms within participants with binge eating. Results: We did not observe differences in regional subcortical volume and cortical thickness between girls and women with and without binge eating. Within participants with binge eating, severity of attitudinal eating disorder symptoms was inversely associated with caudal middle frontal gyrus, right precentral gyrus, right postcentral gyrus, superior parietal, left inferior parietal thickness, and left accumbens volume; however, these associations would not survive multiple-comparison corrections. Discussion: Correlations between attitudinal eating disorder symptoms and frontoparietal thinning may represent a state marker of binge eating. Future research could investigate whether frontoparietal thinning worsens with illness duration or persists beyond binge eating cessation.