Disorders that are characterized by impaired control of food consumption are also associated with abnormal PFC reactivity to cues. This is not unexpected, given that these disorders and addiction involve similar compromises in neuronal circuits44, including decreased striatal dopamine D2 receptor availability45. For example, women with anorexia or bulimia who are passively viewing pictures of foods (versus non-food related pictures) showed increased fMRI BOLD responses in left ventromedial PFC46. Compared to patients with bulimia, patients with anorexia showed greater right OFC activation in response to food pictures, possibly implicating this region in overly restrictive self-control; by contrast, left DLPFC activity to these pictures was decreased in patients with bulimia when compared to healthy controls, possibly implicating this region in the loss of control over food intake46. In another study, young women with eating disorders, but not control subjects, showed activation of the left ventromedial PFC during the selection of the most negative word from negative body-image related word sets (compared to during the selection of the most neutral word from neutral word sets)47. Such differences were not observed for generally
