A computer-based method for the assessment of body-image distortions in anorexia-nervosa patients

Abstract

A computer-based method for the assessment of body-image distortions in anorexia nervosa and other eating-disorder patients is presented in this paper. At the core of the method is a realistic pictorial simulation of lifelike weight changes, applied to a real source image of the patient. The patients, using a graphical user interface, adjust their body shapes until they meet their self-perceived appearance. Measuring the extent of virtual fattening or slimming of a body with respect to its real shape and size allows direct quantitative evaluation of the cognitive distortion in body image. In a preliminary experiment involving 33 anorexia-nervosa patients, 70% of the subjects chose an image with simulated visual weight gain between 8%-16% as their "real" body image, while only one of them recognized the original body image. In a second experiment involving 30 healthy participants, the quality of the weight modified images was evaluated by pairwise selection trials. Over a weight change range from -16% to +28%, in about 30% of the trials, artificially modified images were mistakenly taken as "original" images, thus demonstrating the quality of the artificial images. The method presented is currently in a clinical validation phase, toward application in the research, diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of eating disorders.

Computer-based methods of body image measurement

“…Ezek az eljárások -amellett, hogy csupán a per ceptuális problémákról adnak információt -több kritikát is kapnak. Harari érvelése szerint a különbözõ testrészekre helyezett referenciapontok által módosítható képek kiemelik az egyes részeket az egész test kontextusá ból (Harari, Furst, Kiryati, Caspi, & Davidson, 2001). Továbbá a folyamat külsõ mediátor személy segítségével történik, így az eljárások megbízha tósága alacsony.…”

Assessment of adolescent body perception: Development and characterization of a novel tool for morphing images of adolescent bodies

“…Other body morphing techniques often quantify the degree of body distortion using a global percentage change value without any direct link to physiological body measurements (Harari et al, 2001; R. Sands et al, 2004). In order to quantify (1) the real body dimensions of the 160 AdoBSD subjects and (2) the anthropometric-like changes induced by application of each PC to the body images, we first defined a series of 2-D anthropometric measures within our images that best mimic 3-D anthropometric measures.…”

“…Computer-based morphing tools are the latest addition; these techniques simulate life-like changes in body-shape and size (Benson et al, 1999;Gardner & Boice, 2004;Gruber, Pope, Borowiecki, & Cohane, 1999;Harari, Furst, Kiryati, Caspi, & Davidson, 2001; R. Sands, Maschette, & Armatas, 2004;Shibata, 2002;Smeets, 1999;Stewart, Williamson, Smeets, & Greenway, 2001). Even the most recent software tools, however, may not be ideal for the study of adolescent body perception.…”

Algorithm for facial weight-change

“…Two state of the art measurement methods for body image distortion are described in Benson et al [1] and Harari et al [5]. Despite significant differences, they share important characteristics.…”

“…In [1] and [5], fattening and thinning of the whole body are done by parts, but the face is left unchanged. One possible reason is that virtual fattening or thinning of the face, in a visible but natural-looking way, using modest computing resources and with minimal operator intervention, was simply not available and did not seem feasible.…”