Cognitive set-shifting in anorexia nervosa

Abstract

Objective: Adult anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with inefficient cognitive flexibility and set-shifting. Whether such inefficiencies also characterize adolescent AN is an important area of research.

Method: Adolescents with AN and matched controls were administered a computerized task that required initial learning of an explicit rule using corrective feedback and learning of a new rule after a set number of trials. Adult patients with AN and controls were also examined.

Results: Adolescents with AN did not differ from matched controls with respect to set-shifting cost (decrease in performance after rule change), whereas adults with AN had significantly greater set-shifting cost compared with controls.

Discussion: This study suggests that set-shifting inefficiencies may not be a vulnerability factor for AN development in adolescents with AN, but might become an important aspect of the disorder at later age, and could point towards developmental neurobiologic brain changes that could affect AN at different ages.