Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

I once taught a highly gifted university student who died from anorexia ... and the horrors of that disease opened my eyes. I still remember the frustrations of visiting this student in hospital and then in a mental hospital … as she slowly starved herself to death. Have you met people who lose weight daily where you work?

Newly observed brain scans show how anorexia is linked to unique patterns of brain activity. Interestingly ... even anorexic people who maintain a healthy weight for more than one year ... reveal strikingly different brain activity patterns.
 

Research points to a brain region linked to anxiety and perfectionism, that are also affected in the estimated that one in 100 women between the ages of 15 and 30 who suffer from anorexia.

Dr Walter Kaye and his team observed 13 women … all recovering from anorexia … and 13 healthy women.

The women completed a computer quiz where correct responses were rewarded financially. Researchers observed brain wave activity using …  functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Interestingly, brain regions lit up in differently for both groups. How so?

In  healthy women, brain differences depended on whether they won or lost. In contrast … women with a history of anorexia showed little brain wave difference between winning or losing.

Dr Kaye concluded that anorexics likely find it difficult to appreciate immediate pleasure ... since that sensation appears similar to  negative experiences. In addition, anorexic participants showed exaggerated and obsessive worry about  consequences of their choices. They wanted rules when none were necessary ... and tended to obsess over slight mistakes.

While some breakthroughs in the study of anorexia follow from this new research … it also affirms the complexity of eating disorders, and the life-threatening dangers of anorexia. Do you agree with experts that there may be unique networks in the human brain that make some people more vulnerable to developing anorexia than others?