{
  "abstract": "Restrictive eating disorders are serious psychiatric illnesses carrying the highest morality of any mental health condition, yet their neurobiology remains poorly understood. Progress is constrained by a shortage of animal models with convincing construct validity. In particular, anorexia nervosa (AN), a self-initiated restriction of caloric intake, is notoriously difficult to replicate in mice, which would otherwise offer an ideal pathway to understanding the neural mechanisms of this strongly gene-linked disorder, similar to advances in other neuropsychiatric conditions. Here, we introduce a model of self-initiated restrictive feeding (SIRF), using open-source behavioural devices. We show that SIRF specifically affects female mice, persists in the absence of the initial triggering conditions, and correlates with social rank - features that parallel AN. Meal pattern analysis shows that SIRF arises alongside decreased meal size and duration, with meal frequency unaltered in the long-term. Chemogenetic inhibition of the insular cortex, a brain region consistently implicated in AN and interoceptive processing, reduced SIRF. In sum, this proof-of-principle study suggests that SIRF provides a tractable model of self-initiated restriction as a platform for dissecting the neural circuits that initiate and sustain restrictive eating.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Institute for Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Research, University of Edinburgh, UK"
  ],
  "article_type": "New results",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "R. Ferguson"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "M. Karnani"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/e4pb749wcm3ty.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.64898/2026.10.20.760181",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.20.760181v1.full",
  "id": "e4pb749wcm3ty",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.20.760181v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "biorxiv",
      "neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3203|Eating Disorders and Behaviors"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223452205",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.20.760181v1.full.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-20",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/e4pb749wcm3ty.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:29:31Z",
      "native_id": "10.64898/2026.10.20.760181",
      "source": "biorxiv",
      "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.20.760181v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "biorxiv:neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Self-initiated restrictive feeding: a new mouse model of restrictive eating disorders",
  "title_text": "Self-initiated restrictive feeding: a new mouse model of restrictive eating disorders",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:29:31Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/e4pb749wcm3ty",
  "venue": "bioRxiv",
  "versions": []
}