Background: There is extensive evidence for volumetric reductions in the hippocampus in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), however the impact on function is unclear. Pattern separation and recognition are hippocampus-dependent forms of learning thought to underlie stimulus discrimination. Methods: The present study used the Mnemonic Similarity Task to investigate pattern separation and recognition for the first time in patients with AN (N = 46) and healthy controls (N = 56). An Analysis of Covariance examined between-group differences, controlling for age, antidepressant use and method of task delivery (remote vs. in person). Results: When controlling for covariates, pattern recognition memory scores were lower in the AN group with a medium effect size (d = 0.51). In contrast, there was a small effect whereby patients with AN had a greater pattern separation score than controls (d = 0.34), albeit this difference was not significant at the p = 0.05 threshold (p = 0.133). Furthermore, pattern separation and recognition memory abilities were not related to age, body mass index, eating disorder psychopathology or trait anxiety levels. Conclusions: This preliminary study provides initial evidence for an imbalance in pattern separation and recognition abilities in AN, a hippocampus-dependent cognitive ability. Further studies should endeavour to investigate pattern separation and recognition performance further in AN, as well as investigate other hippocampus-dependent functions.
CITATION STYLE
Keeler, J., Lambert, E., Olivola, M., Owen, J., Xia, J., Thuret, S., … Treasure, J. (2021). Lower pattern recognition memory scores in anorexia nervosa. Journal of Eating Disorders, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-021-00406-8
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