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Commentary Open Access
Volume 2 | Issue 1 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.33696/Neurol.2.031

Commentary on Vulnerability and Resilience to Activity- Based Anorexia and the Role of Dopamine

  • 1Department of Psychology, Queens College, CUNY, Flushing, NY, 11367 USA
  • 2Department of Psychology, Hunter College, CUNY, New York, NY, 10065 USA
  • 3Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY, 10016 USA
  • 4Department of Biology, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY, 10016 USA
  • 5CUNY Neuroscience Collaborative, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY, 10016 USA
+ Affiliations - Affiliations

Corresponding Author

Jeff A Beeler, jbeeler@qc.cuny.edu, 

Nesha Burghardt, nb844@hunter.cuny.edu

Received Date: January 10, 2021

Accepted Date: February 11, 2021

Abstract

Activity-based anorexia (ABA) is a commonly used rodent model of anorexia nervosa that is based on observations made in rats decades ago. In recently published work, we describe using this paradigm to model vulnerability and resilience to anorexia nervosa in mice, where vulnerability is characterized by hyperactivity and life-threatening weight loss and resilience is characterized by adaptation and weight stabilization. Using genetically modified hyperdopaminergic mice, we also demonstrate that increased dopamine augments vulnerability to ABA. Here, we briefly review our findings and discuss how obtaining vulnerable and resilient phenotypes enhances utility of the ABA model for understanding the neurobiological basis of anorexia nervosa. We comment on our dopamine findings and close by discussing implications for clinical treatment.

 

Keywords

Activity-based anorexia, Anorexia nervosa, Dopamine, Resilience, Vulnerability, Caloric restriction, Hyperactivity, Mice, Animal model, C57BL/6

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