How decision-making changes in teens with bulimia nervosa
Official title: Charting the Development of Exploration in Adolescent Bulimia Nervosa: A Neurocomputational Approach
Funded at Virginia Commonwealth University · NIH-11322036 · Data updated 2026-05-14
This study is no longer in our active list. It may have stopped recruiting or finished. The details below are as of 2026-05-14 and are kept for reference. Check NIH RePORTER for its current status.
This work uses games and brain scans to see how teenage girls with bulimia nervosa make exploratory versus impulsive choices over time.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Virginia Commonwealth University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Richmond, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11322036 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Girls and young women aged about 12–20 with a diagnosis of bulimia nervosa (and matched healthy peers) are the ideal participants for this project.
✕Less likely to help
People outside the 12–20 age range, those without bulimia nervosa, or those with unstable medical conditions are unlikely to gain direct benefit from participating.
What this research studies
You would be invited to play a decision-making 'bandit' game while having a functional MRI to measure brain activity. The project will enroll three age cohorts of adolescent girls (early, middle, and late adolescence) with bulimia nervosa and matched peers, about 120 participants total. The team will use computer models to break down different exploration and impulsivity strategies and repeat the game and questionnaires remotely at 1- and 2-year follow-ups. The goal is to map how these decision patterns and their brain circuits change during adolescence to guide better-targeted care.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could point to specific decision-making processes and brain targets to improve treatments for adolescents with bulimia nervosa.
How similar studies have gone: Related decision-making and fMRI approaches have produced useful insights in other psychiatric conditions, but applying computational bandit tasks to adolescent bulimia nervosa is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Hagan, Kelsey — Virginia Commonwealth University
- Study coordinator: Hagan, Kelsey
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.