People who binge-eat show altered prefrontal-corticalstriatal-insula responses to appetitive stimuli. One fMRI study compared neural activation in women with AN and BN who passively viewed images of food, finding reduced prefrontal cortex but greater cerebellum activation in women with BN. However, no fMRI study to date has attempted to deliberately evoke cognitions associatied with eating in women with AN and BN, and to measure neural responses to food images. The aim of this exploratory study, which uses a novel paradigm whereby eating-related cognitions are evoked by thinking about eating food shown in images, is to demonstrate a differential pattern of activation in cortico-striatal-insula regions between women currently ill with AN and BN. We hypothesize that: a) women with AN and BN compared to healthy controls have reduced striatal-insular cortex, and greater prefrontal cortical activation when thinking about eating food versus non-food items shown in images; b) women with BN have reduced prefrontal cortical activation but greater striatal-insular cortex responses in comparison to women with AN. Using a novel fMRI paradigm, whereby participants thought about eating food shown in images rather than passively viewing them, we have compared neural responses in women with BN and AN. These exploratory data provide the first evidence that patterns of food consumption combined with degree of restraint over eating behaviour may alter how the brain responds when thinking about eating food. However, caution must be exercised; despite stringent threshold corrections, the small sample sizes make these intriguing results somewhat tentative at this stage, and in need of further clarification with larger cohorts. Activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, visual cortex and cerebellum in response to food versus non-food images was found in women with AN and BN. Additionally, women with BN show greater somatosensory and motor responses in the right insular cortex and post-central gyrus. Women with BN showed increased activation in somatosensory, motor and appetitive regions in comparison to AN and HC. Furthermore, women with BPAN had reduced activation in comparison to women with BN in regions associated with appetitive and motor responses. Thus, although women with BPAN partake in binge eating and purging behaviour in a AZD6244 similar way to women with BN, their heightened control over eating may be achieved by a reduced drive to eat over the long term. Thus, these results suggest a clear BN-specific map of brain activation in response to thinking about eating food shown in images, which is primarily characterized by signs of increased appetitive, somatosensory and motor responses, in parallel with activation of prefrontal cortex cognitive inhibition. However, these intriguing suggestions need to be tested further.