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Impact of Fatty Stimuli on Cerebral Activity in Anorexia Nervosa: a Multi-sensory Approach

Key facts

Who runs it
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint Etienne
Where
France1 site in 1 countryChoose a country to see its sites
Trial code
Status
Not yet recruiting
People taking part
90 people, planned
Starts
Dec 2026
Expected to end
Nov 2027
Type of study
Interventional, 3 groupsOne group gets an existing treatment, for comparison.
Treatments tested
  • MRI examination
  • Smell and taste capacity testings
Record updated
16 September 2026

Who can take part

Age
18 years and older
Sex
Women only
Healthy volunteers
Can take part

The registry criteria, word for word

Show all 22 criteriaShow less

Who can take part

  • Person affiliated or entitled to a social security scheme
  • Person having received informed information on the study and having co-signed, with the investigator, a consent to participate in the study
  • female person
  • Person affiliated or entitled to a social security scheme
  • Over 18 years'old
  • Knowing how to read and write French
  • Patient diagnosed with anorexia nervosa according to DSM-5 criteria for at least 5 years (HAS criteria). Failure of prior outpatient or/and hospitalization care over the last 12 months: stable or falling low BMI, unmodified food restriction, continued fear of weight gain, disturbances in the perception of body image
  • BMI < 18.5 kg/m² for volunteers in a state of constitutional thinness. The absence of eating disorder and the absence of restriction to DEBQ questionnaires. Fertility preserved
  • For volunteers of normal weight: 18.5 kg/m² < BMI < 25 kg/m²

Who cannot take part

  • Associated organic damage favoring undernutrition: other chronic diseases (digestive, infectious, endocrine, pulmonary, cardiac, neurological), neoplasms, etc
  • Contraindications to MRI or allergy to one of the components of the olfactory and taste tests
  • Pregnant women, parturient, nursing mothers
  • Persons deprived of their liberty, hospitalized without consent, hospitalized for purposes other than research
  • Minors
  • Refusal of the study by the participant
  • Person incapable of giving informed consent
  • Artificial nutrition
  • Abuse of psychoactive substances except tobacco
  • Characterized depressive episode, psychosis
  • Score less than 14 on the Edinburgh laterality questionnaire
  • Smokers
  • Smell or taste alterations

This trial has no sites in United States.

It has sites in one country. Choose a country to see its sites.

About the trial

What the trial wants to find out

Lipid restriction is significant in anorexia nervosa and limits therapeutic management. The multisensory perception of fat is altered, creating an aversion to lipids. The investigators aim to characterize the impact of sensory stimulation (smells or images) associated with specific tastes using neuropsychological assessments and functional MRI. Some volatile aromas can enhance the perception of the associated taste. The investigators hypothesize that such associations are altered in anorexia nervosa for fatty foods but may be preserved for sweet tastes, and that this alteration contributes to the maintenance of the disease. The interdependence of different sensory perceptions of lipids could play a major role in the therapeutic approach, aiding in the deconditioning of this aversion and the restoration of positive food sensory associations.

The 3 groups in the trial

  • Anorexia Nervosa patient groupTreatment being tested

    30 patients with anorexia nervosa

    Treatment: MRI examination and Smell and taste capacity testings

  • Normal Weight Control groupExisting treatment, for comparison

    30 control subjects of normal weight

    Treatment: MRI examination and Smell and taste capacity testings

  • Low Weight Control groupExisting treatment, for comparison

    30 control subjects with a similar weight to AN patients (the constitutional thinness group)

    Treatment: MRI examination and Smell and taste capacity testings

Questions to ask the study team

  1. How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
  2. Are travel costs paid?
  3. Can I keep my own doctor?
  4. What happens if I want to stop?

Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations

Print a page for my doctor

Data and sources

Registry record
Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Record updated
16 September 2026