Longitudinal changes of cortical morphometry and volume of hypothalamic subunits in female patients with anorexia nervosa

Motivation: Longitudinal alterations of cortical morphometry and volumes of hypothalamic subunits remained undetermined. Goal(s): To clarify dynamic changes of cortical and hypothalamic subunits related to different stage of AN. Approach: We preprocess all 3D T1WI data with FreeSurfer's longitudinal pipeline and compared cortical and hypothalamic structure cross-sectionally and longitudinally females with AN using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and paired-t test. Results: We found increased cortical thickness (CT) and cortical volume (CV) by weight restoration in AN and decreased volumes of bilateral hypothalamic posterior subunits(posHyp), and these changes were linked with different capabilities in living and work functions, as well as eating disorder issues. Impact: In our study, the recovery of CT and CV along with continuous decline in bilateral posHyp volume in AN after treatment, could potentially provide new insights into linking the brain structural alterations to different clinical symptoms in AN recovery.