What can cognitive neuroscience teach us about anorexia nervosa?

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex illness and highly challenging to treat. One promising approach to significantly advance our understanding of the underlying pathophysiology of AN involves developing a cognitive neuroscience model of illness. Cognitive neuroscience uses probes such as neuropsychological tasks and neuroimaging techniques to identify the neural underpinnings of behavior. With this approach, advances have been made in identifying higher-order cognitive processes that likely mediate symptom expression in AN. Identification of related neuropathology is beginning. Such findings led to the development of complex neurobehavioral models that aim to explain the etiology and persistence of AN. Future research will use these advanced tools to test and refine hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms of AN.