A study from France’s Inserm, Paris Descartes University and Sainte Anne Hospital suggests that anorexia nervosa may be linked to the pleasure of losing weight rather than the fear of gaining weight. To avoid being influenced by the subjective discourse of patients suffering from disease, the researchers used a “skin conductance test” to measure the rate of perspiration on their skin when exposed to various images. The emotion caused by seeing certain images leads to a rapid and automatic increase in perspiration, which can be measured objectively.