Eating Disorders

Here’s how eating disorders symptoms may also be explained by retained primitive reflexes and incomplete lower brain development.

A decreased sensation of appetite, the primary symptom of anorexia, can be a sign of an underdeveloped pons. When the pons is very underdeveloped, the brain does not “sense” that it needs to eat.

Preoccupation with food, the primary symptom of bulimia, can be a sign of an underdeveloped midbrain. Here, the brain never gets the feedback that it is “full.”

A distorted body image can be a sign of poor proprioceptive processing. In such cases, the brain does not “see” the body as others do. This may explain why some teens can think they’re overweight when everyone else is concerned with their low body weight.