In a separate fMRI study, the taste of sugar produced blunted responses in the insula (the primary taste cortex) of recovered anorexic patients, compared with healthy controls. Unlike in the healthy patients, however, there was no correlation between the taster's rating of pleasantness and the insula's response to sugar in recovered anorexic individuals, he noted.
Before these data can be used to develop new treatments, it would be useful for patients to understand that this temperament is wired into their brains and that they might be able to learn to modulate their feelings and thoughts and develop adaptive coping strategies, said Dr. Kaye, also of the University of California, San Diego.