Relationship between binge eating and associated eating behaviors with subcortical brain volumes and cortical thickness

BACKGROUND: Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most prevalent eating disorder. We examined the presence of binge eating (BE) and three associated eating behaviors in relation to subcortical regional volumes and cortical thickness from brain scans. METHODS: We processed structural MRI brain scans for 466 individuals from the Nathan Kline Institute Rockland Sample using Freesurfer. We investigated subcortical volumes and cortical thicknesses among those with and without BE and in relation to the scores on dietary restraint, disinhibition, and hunger from the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ). We conducted a whole-brain analysis and a region of analysis (ROI) using a priori regions associated with BE and with the three eating factors. We also compared scores on the three TFEQ factors for the BE and non-BE. RESULTS: The BE group had higher scores for dietary restraint (p = .013), disinhibition (p = 1.22E-07), and hunger (p = 5.88E-07). In the whole-brain analysis, no regions survived correction for multiple comparisons (FDR corrected p