Prioritizing brain Metabolism: Evidence from brain temperatures of severe underweight individuals

IF 3.2 2区医学 Q1 PSYCHIATRY

Journal of psychiatric research Pub Date : 2025-10-04 DOI:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.09.055

Arne Doose , Friederike I. Tam , Dominic Arold , Carolin Kutzke , Tyler Starr , Veit Roessner , Jennifer Linn , Alexander P. Lin , Stefan Ehrlich

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective

Severe and prolonged underweight can lead to a hypometabolic state and hormonal adaptations that reduce body temperature often found in Anorexia Nervosa (AN). However, the effect of these changes on brain temperature remains unclear. We aimed to investigate whether brain temperature remains stable despite lower body temperature in a severe underweight state, testing the hypothesis that the brain prioritizes its own energy needs during periods of food deprivation.

Method

We collected magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) measurements from 30 female patients with acute Anorexia Nervosa (acAN) in a severe underweight state and 30 age-matched healthy female control participants (HC). MRS allows for a non-invasive assessment of brain temperature by calculating the difference between the temperature-independent peak of N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and the temperature-dependent peak of water (H20) in each voxel (Δ_H20-NAA).

Results

Our results showed no group differences in (Δ_H20-NAA) between acAN and HC. This is supported by Bayesian hypothesis testing, providing strong evidence for the absence of lower brain temperatures in severely underweight states.

Conclusion

Our results are an indication that in a state of low energy availability, brain metabolism is prioritized.

查看原文本刊更多论文

优先考虑脑代谢：来自严重体重不足个体的脑温度的证据。

目的：严重和长期的体重不足可导致低代谢状态和激素适应，降低体温，这在神经性厌食症（AN）中经常发现。然而，这些变化对大脑温度的影响尚不清楚。我们的目的是研究在体重严重不足的情况下，尽管体温较低，但大脑温度是否保持稳定，从而验证大脑在食物剥夺期间优先考虑自身能量需求的假设。方法：收集30例严重体重不足的女性急性神经性厌食症（acAN）患者和30例年龄匹配的健康女性对照（HC）的磁共振波谱（MRS）测量数据。通过计算每个体素中n-乙酰天冬氨酸（NAA）的温度无关峰与水（H20）的温度相关峰之间的差异，MRS允许对脑温度进行非侵入性评估（ΔH20-NAA）。结果：我们的结果显示acAN和HC在（ΔH20-NAA）方面没有组间差异。这得到了贝叶斯假设检验的支持，为严重体重不足状态下大脑温度不低提供了强有力的证据。结论：我们的结果表明，在低能量可用性状态下，脑代谢是优先考虑的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of psychiatric research 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

2.10%

发文量

622

审稿时长

130 days

期刊介绍： Founded in 1961 to report on the latest work in psychiatry and cognate disciplines, the Journal of Psychiatric Research is dedicated to innovative and timely studies of four important areas of research: (1) clinical studies of all disciplines relating to psychiatric illness, as well as normal human behaviour, including biochemical, physiological, genetic, environmental, social, psychological and epidemiological factors; (2) basic studies pertaining to psychiatry in such fields as neuropsychopharmacology, neuroendocrinology, electrophysiology, genetics, experimental psychology and epidemiology; (3) the growing application of clinical laboratory techniques in psychiatry, including imagery and spectroscopy of the brain, molecular biology and computer sciences;