Are adolescents with anorexia nervosa better at reading minds

Introduction: The present study aimed to investigate mindreading abilities in female adolescent patients with AN compared to healthy controls (HCs), analysing differences for emotional valence of facial stimuli.Methods: The Eating Disorder Inventory) for evaluating psychological traits associated with eating disorders and the Children's version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test for evaluating mindreading abilities were administered to 40 Italian female patients (mean age = 14.93; SD = 1.48) with restrictive diagnosis of anorexia nervosa (AN) and 40 healthy females (mean age = 14.88; SD = 0.56).Results: No significant differences between the AN group and HCs for the Eyes Total score were found. Even when analysing emotional valence of the items, the two groups were equally successful in the facial recognition of positive, negative and neutral emotions. A significant difference was revealed for the percentage of correct responses of item 10 and item 15, where the AN group was less able to correctly i...