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NEW PAPER ALERT We describe a neurobiological link between cognitive flexibility and pathological weight loss (in rats
), now *In Press* @SOBP @BiologicalPsyc1! Have a scroll 
through my clumsily GIF-laden thread... there’s a link to the paper at the end 
. [1/9]
Cognitive inflexibility is a key hallmark of #anorexia nervosa - it leads to strict, *unyielding* adherence to diet & exercise regimes, which makes it possible for patients to “override” the evolutionary survival mechanisms that should prevent starvation. [2/9]
This is a real problem for #treatment & #recovery - it’s not enough to say that patients with anorexia are “recovered” when they gain weight - many will experience chronic, relapsing & life threatening illness unless they are able to fundamentally change the way they think. [3/9]
We use the activity-based anorexia rat model to study the neurobiology of anorexia. We want to understand why some rats are #susceptible to rapid & precipitous weight loss, while #resistant rats are able to maintain body weight under the same experimental conditions 
. [4/9]
model to study the neurobiology of anorexia. We want to understand why some rats are #susceptible to rapid & precipitous weight loss, while #resistant rats are able to maintain body weight under the same experimental conditions . [4/9]
In combination with pathway-specific #DREADDs and #touchscreen cognitive tests, we exposed rats to the activity-based anorexia paradigm to investigate how activity in a cortico-striatal circuit influences cognitive flexibility & adaptation to time-limited food access. [5/9]
We found that *suppression* of neurons in the prefrontal cortex that project to the ventral striatum (mPFC-AcbSh) *improved* cognitive #flexibility in a reversal learning task & allowed rats to #adapt to activity-based anorexia in order to maintain a healthy body weight. [6/9]
In other words, when we “slam the breaks on” cognitive control from the prefrontal cortex, these rats can more *quickly* adapt to changing reward contingencies & are able to learn compensatory behaviours to *prevent* pathological weight loss. [7/9]
Our study highlights the utility of the activity-based anorexia rat model for understanding the biological bases 
of cognitive deficits in patients with #anorexia nervosa & provides context for new treatment strategies targeting flexibility and control. [8/9]
![Our study highlights the utility of the activity-based anorexia rat model for understanding the biological bases of cognitive deficits in patients with #anorexia nervosa & provides context for new treatment strategies targeting flexibility and control. [8/9]](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EcIgb74U4AALRxs.jpg "Our study highlights the utility of the activity-based anorexia rat model for understanding the biological bases of cognitive deficits in patients with #anorexia nervosa & provides context for new treatment strategies targeting flexibility and control. [8/9]")
for understanding the biological bases of cognitive deficits in patients with #anorexia nervosa & provides context for new treatment strategies targeting flexibility and control. [8/9]
And here is a link to the paper. Thanks to everyone involved 
, especially @LauraKMilton who spent a big chunk of her PhD doing these experiments 
#FoldiLab @MonashBDI (click
)[9/9] https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(20)31711-X/pdf
, especially @LauraKMilton who spent a big chunk of her PhD doing these experiments #FoldiLab @MonashBDI (click)[9/9] https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(20)31711-X/pdf
