Neural Mechanisms of Anorexia

Conclusion

Studying the neural mechanisms that underlie anorexia presents an important opportunity for approaching two significant problems. First, this work should delineate how ingestive behaviors are controlled at a neural systems level. Because there is clear evidence for distinct circuits that are responsible for inhibiting and stimulating feeding behavior, experimental anorexias like those associated with DE, locomotor activity, or cytokines can be used as tools to probe the organization of the neural networks that control feeding. Second, as we have seen, anorexia is a significant complication to many clinical conditions. Although determining the etiologies of clinically important anorexias using animal models presents a significant challenge, we are making significant progress toward understanding how feeding is compromised in some instances, for example, cancer cachexia, (Lechan & Tatro, 2001). But understanding the mechanisms responsible for AN is proving to be particularly challenging. Perhaps this stems from the fact that AN is a wholly human disease, perhaps even a disease of our time. In this way it is, like schizophrenia, difficult and perhaps even impossible to approach in its entirety using experimental animal models. This is particularly apparent if we consider that most studies attempt to use the rat or mouse to model AN. These animals, when compared to humans, have a less complex cortical organization and quite different social structures making comparisons difficult. But despite these problems, the significant clinical and social cost of anorexia should provide us with adequate motivation to increase our understanding of the neural bases of anorexia.