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Activity-Based Anorexia, an Animal Model of Anorexia Nervosa for Investigating Brain Plasticity Underlying the Gain of Resilience

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Animal Models of Eating Disorders

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 161))

Abstract

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a mental illness characterized by continuously severe, self-imposed starvation and intense anxiety, manifested as fear of gaining weight. An increasing number of individuals are diagnosed with AN, especially among men. AN is now recognized to include those serving the military as well. With no accepted pharmacological treatments available, coupled with its high mortality and relapse rates, better understanding of the neurobiological basis of this mental illness is needed. This chapter describes the animal model of AN, called activity-based anorexia (ABA), that captures multiple core features of AN successfully, including voluntary food restriction, heightened anxiety, and excessive exercise, culminating in severe body weight loss. Also described in this chapter is how individual differences in vulnerability to ABA can be quantified. This chapter will include examples of synaptic plasticity measurements that may underlie the gain of resilience, quantified as the suppression of two maladaptive behaviors – excessive exercise and voluntary food restriction. Finally, the chapter will describe potential uses of the ABA model for exploring pharmacological treatments to reduce the maladaptive behaviors elicited in the ABA model.

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Acknowledgments

Supported by NYU University Research Challenge Fund. The following past grants to CA enabled the development of the ABA model: Klarman Family Foundation Eating Disorders Research Grants Program, MH105846, R21MH091445, and NYU Emergency Research Challenge Fund. The author thanks the following scientists and research associates for their outstanding contributions toward the collection of data presented here and cited: Morgan Pierce Lange, Christine Hui Yen, Larry Le, Muzi Andrew Du, Sabrina George, Ishan Rai Handa, Rose Temizer, Emily Makowicz, Dr. Adrienne Naomi Santiago, Dr. Gauri Satish Wable, Dr. Tara Gunkali Chowdhury, and Dr. Yi-Wen Chen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Chiye Aoki

  2. Neuroscience Institute, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Chiye Aoki

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Correspondence to Chiye Aoki .

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  1. Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Nicole M. Avena

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Aoki, C. (2021). Activity-Based Anorexia, an Animal Model of Anorexia Nervosa for Investigating Brain Plasticity Underlying the Gain of Resilience. In: Avena, N.M. (eds) Animal Models of Eating Disorders. Neuromethods, vol 161. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0924-8_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-0924-8_15

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

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  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-0924-8

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