Visual body perception in anorexia nervosa

Urgesi, Cosimo; Fornasari, Livia; Perini, Laura; Canalaz, Francesca; Cremaschi, Silvana; Faleschini, Laura; Balestrieri, Matteo; Fabbro, Franco; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria; Brambilla, Paolo

doi:10.1002/eat.20982

Cited by 40 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(79 reference statements)

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“…These studies also found that AN participants correctly judge height, body movements (Garner et al, 1976; Slade et al, 1973; Smeets et al, 1997; Urgesi et al, 2012), and objects (Garner et al, 1976; Slade et al, 1973; Smeets et al, 1997; Urgesi et al, 2012). These findings suggest a specific disturbance of own body image.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Studies in AN in adults and adolescents have found abnormalities in attention, and overestimation of body size, specific to images of their own bodies (Garner, Garfinkel, Stancer, & Moldofsky, 1976; Slade et al, 1973; Smeets, Smit, Panhuysen, & Ingleby, 1997; Urgesi et al, 2012). An eye tracking study showed that AN participants focus visual attention on body parts they are dissatisfied with, whereas controls tend to scan the whole body image (Freeman, 1991).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies indicate that adults and adolescents with AN overestimate their overall body size (Garner et al, 1976; Slade et al, 1973; Smeets et al, 1997; Urgesi et al, 2012), even though processing of their own body parts (Garner et al, 1976; Slade et al, 1973; Smeets et al, 1997; Urgesi et al, 2012) and of the body size of other women (Garner et al, 1976; Slade et al, 1973; Smeets et al, 1997; Urgesi et al, 2012) does not differ or is more accurate than controls. These studies also found that AN participants correctly judge height, body movements (Garner et al, 1976; Slade et al, 1973; Smeets et al, 1997; Urgesi et al, 2012), and objects (Garner et al, 1976; Slade et al, 1973; Smeets et al, 1997; Urgesi et al, 2012).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, other studies have found perceptual abnormalities when viewing images of others’ bodies. AN adults are better at detecting “thinner than” differences in others’ bodies (Smeets, Ingleby, Hoek, & Panhuysen, 1999) and are more accurate than controls in a delayed matching-to-sample task of pictures of male bodies, with no performance differences when matching pictures of body movements in adolescence (Urgesi et al, 2012). In summary, there appears to be evidence in AN for disturbances in visual processing of both own and others’ bodies, although there may be slightly different patterns in each.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Visual processing in anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder: Similarities, differences, and future research directions

Madsen

Bohon

Feusner

2013

Journal of Psychiatric Research

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Anorexia nervosa (AN) and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are psychiatric disorders that involve distortion of the experience of one’s physical appearance. In AN, individuals believe that they are overweight, perceive their body as “fat,” and are preoccupied with maintaining a low body weight. In BDD, individuals are preoccupied with misperceived defects in physical appearance, most often of the face. Distorted visual perception may contribute to these cardinal symptoms, and may be a common underlying phenotype. This review surveys the current literature on visual processing in AN and BDD, addressing lower- to higher-order stages of visual information processing and perception. We focus on peer-reviewed studies of AN and BDD that address ophthalmologic abnormalities, basic neural processing of visual input, integration of visual input with other systems, neuropsychological tests of visual processing, and representations of whole percepts (such as images of faces, bodies, and other objects). The literature suggests a pattern in both groups of over-attention to detail, reduced processing of global features, and a tendency to focus on symptom-specific details in their own images (body parts in AN, facial features in BDD), with cognitive strategy at least partially mediating the abnormalities. Visuospatial abnormalities were also evident when viewing images of others and for non-appearance related stimuli. Unfortunately no study has directly compared AN and BDD, and most studies were not designed to disentangle disease-related emotional responses from lower-order visual processing. We make recommendations for future studies to improve the understanding of visual processing abnormalities in AN and BDD.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Visual processing in anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder: Similarities, differences, and future research directions

Madsen

Bohon

Feusner

2013

Journal of Psychiatric Research

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“…In contrast, most patients with major-depression (MD; [33]) do not perceive strange-face illusions, since they perceive their immobile faces without emotions, as death statues in the mirror [34]. Further research may be done in patients with body-dysmorphic-disorder (BDD; [57]) and anorexia nervosa (AN; [58]), who suffer from their bodily imaginary appearance that, in terms of their actual physical body, is strongly dissociated. Notwithstanding the important psychopathology of BDD and AN patients, relevant differences in perceptual processes with respect to healthy individuals have not been found in previous studies.…”

Section: Strange-face Illusions and Archetypal Imagerymentioning

confidence: 99%

Archetypal-Imaging and Mirror-Gazing

Caputo

2013

Behavioral Sciences

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Mirrors have been studied by cognitive psychology in order to understand self-recognition, self-identity, and self-consciousness. Moreover, the relevance of mirrors in spirituality, magic and arts may also suggest that mirrors can be symbols of unconscious contents. Carl G. Jung investigated mirrors in relation to the unconscious, particularly in Psychology and Alchemy. However, the relationship between the conscious behavior in front of a mirror and the unconscious meaning of mirrors has not been clarified. Recently, empirical research found that gazing at one’s own face in the mirror for a few minutes, at a low illumination level, produces the perception of bodily dysmorphic illusions of strange-faces. Healthy observers usually describe huge distortions of their own faces, monstrous beings, prototypical faces, faces of relatives and deceased, and faces of animals. In the psychiatric population, some schizophrenics show a dramatic increase of strange-face illusions. They can also describe the perception of multiple-others that fill the mirror surface surrounding their strange-face. Schizophrenics are usually convinced that strange-face illusions are truly real and identify themselves with strange-face illusions, diversely from healthy individuals who never identify with them. On the contrary, most patients with major depression do not perceive strange-face illusions, or they perceive very faint changes of their immobile faces in the mirror, like death statues. Strange-face illusions may be the psychodynamic projection of the subject’s unconscious archetypal contents into the mirror image. Therefore, strange-face illusions might provide both an ecological setting and an experimental technique for “imaging of the unconscious”. Future researches have been proposed.

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Biopsychiatric Theories of Eating Disorders

Madden

2015

The Wiley Handbook of Eating Disorders

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Visual body perception in anorexia nervosa

Abstract: The paradoxical advantage of patients with AN in detail-based body processing may be associated to their tendency to routinely explore body parts as a consequence of their obsessive worries about body appearance.

Cited by 40 publications

References 55 publications

Visual processing in anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder: Similarities, differences, and future research directions

Visual processing in anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder: Similarities, differences, and future research directions

Archetypal-Imaging and Mirror-Gazing

Biopsychiatric Theories of Eating Disorders

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