Distinct Topological Properties of the Reward Anticipation Network in Preadolescent Children With Binge Eating Disorder Symptoms

Objective Few studies have considered the neural underpinnings of binge eating disorder (BED) in children despite clinical and subclinical symptom presentation occurring in this age group. Symptom presentation at this age is of clinical relevance, as early onset of binge eating is linked to negative health outcomes. Studies in adults have highlighted dysfunction in the frontostriatal reward system as a potential candidate for binge eating pathophysiology although the exact nature of such dysfunction is currently unclear. Method Data from 83 (mean age 9.9 years, SD = .60) children with symptoms of BED (57% girls) and 123 (mean age 10.0 years, SD = .60) controls (52% girls) were acquired from the 4.0 baseline release of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Task-based graph theoretic techniques were used to analyze data from anticipation trials of the monetary incentive delay task. Network and nodal properties were compared between groups. Results The BED-S group showed alterations in topological properties associated with the frontostriatal subnetwork such as reduced nodal efficiency in superior frontal gyrus, nucleus accumbens, putamen, and in normal sex-difference patterns of these properties such as diminished girls-greater-than-boys pattern of betweenness-centrality in nucleus accumbens observed in controls. Conclusion Distinct network properties and sex-difference patterns in preadolescent children with BED-S suggest dysregulation in reward system compared to matched controls. For the first time, these results quantify this dysregulation in terms of systems-level properties during anticipation of monetary reward and significantly inform the early and sex-related brain markers of BED symptoms.