Body image distortions in healthy adults

Fuentes, Christina T.; Longo, Matthew R.; Haggard, Patrick

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.06.012

Cited by 93 publications

(106 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Analogous distortions have also been found on tasks in which representations of body size and shape are inferred from the pattern of proprioceptive localization judgments, both for the hand (Longo & Haggard, 2010 and torso (Hach & Schütz-Bosbach, 2010). Fuentes and colleagues have also found similar biases using a 'body Bilateral Tactile Anisotropy 18 image task' in which participants judge the relative location of body landmarks by clicking the corresponding place on a monitor, both for the body as a whole (Fuentes, Longo, & Haggard, 2013a;Fuentes et al, 2013b) and the face specifically (Fuentes et al, 2013c). The finding of qualitatively similar distortions on widely disparate skin surfaces and across tasks raises the possibility that a general bias to represent the body as squatter and fatter than it is may reflect a basic principle of body representation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Bilateral Symmetry of Distortions of Tactile Size Perception

2015

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The perceived distance between touches on the limbs is generally bigger for distances oriented across the width of the limb than for distances oriented along the length of the limb. The present study aimed to investigate the coherence of such distortions of tactile size perception across different skin surfaces. We investigated distortions of tactile size perception on the dorsal and palmar surfaces of both the left and right hands as well as the forehead. Participants judged which of two tactile distances felt larger. One distance was aligned with the proximodistal axis (along the body), the other with the mediolateral axis (across the body). Clear distortions were found on all five skin surfaces, with stimuli oriented across the width of the body being perceived as farther apart than those oriented along the length of the body. Consistent with previous results, distortions were smaller on the palmar than on the dorsal hand surface. Distortion on the forehead was intermediate between the dorsal and palmar surfaces. There were clear correlations between distortion on the left and right hands, for both the dorsal and palmar skin surfaces. In contrast, within each hand, there was no significant correlation between the two skin surfaces. Distortion on the forehead was not significantly correlated with that on any of the other skin surfaces. These results provide evidence for bilaterally symmetric representations underlying tactile size perception.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Bilateral Symmetry of Distortions of Tactile Size Perception

2015

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“…The full experiment included the IAT, the explicit questions targeting body preference, some groupspecific questions and the Body Image Task (Fuentes et al, 2013a(Fuentes et al, , 2013b. The latter is not reported here, as the number of participants was too low (only 14 individuals with xenomelia completed the task) and an analysis of the data would not have allowed any reasonable interpretation.…”

Section: General Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

When less is more – Implicit preference for incomplete bodies in xenomelia

Macauda

Bekrater-Bodmann

Brugger

et al. 2017

Journal of Psychiatric Research

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Individuals with xenomelia identify with an amputated rather than with their physically complete, healthy body. They often mimic amputees and show a strong admiration of and sexual attraction towards them. Here we investigated for the first time empirically whether such unusual preference for amputated bodies is present also on an implicit level. Using the well-validated Implicit Association Test we show that individuals with xenomelia manifested a stronger implicit and explicit preference for amputated bodies than a normally-limbed control group and a group of involuntary amputees did. Interestingly, the two latter groups did not differ in their implicit and explicit preference for complete versus amputated bodies. These findings are an important step in understanding how deeply rooted attitudes about a socially normative body appearance may be influenced by a developmentally disordered experience of one's own bodily self. We conclude that this is the first behavioral evidence demonstrating a conflict of self-identification on an implicit level and this enriches current understandings of xenomelia as a primarily neurological disorder. AbstractIndividuals with xenomelia identify with an amputated rather than with their physically complete, healthy body. They often mimic amputees and show a strong admiration of and sexual attraction towards them. Here we investigated for the first time empirically whether such unusual preference for amputated bodies is present also on an implicit level. Using the wellvalidated Implicit Association Test we show that individuals with xenomelia manifested a stronger implicit and explicit preference for amputated bodies stronger than a normally-limbed control group and a group of involuntary amputees did. Interestingly, the two latter groups did not differ in their implicit and explicit preference for complete versus amputated bodies. These findings are an important step in understanding how deeply rooted attitudes about a socially normative body appearance may be influenced by a developmentally disordered experience of one's own bodily self. We conclude that this first behavioral evidence to demonstrate a conflict of self-identification on an implicit level and this enriches current understandings of xenomelia as a primarily neurological disorder.

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“…Hashimoto and Iriki [2013] used distorted photographs of participants' own bodies to show that women estimate photographs distorted by 10% in width to be photographs of their current body size, but photographs distorted by 30% in width were estimated to belong to others. Other work finds that healthy individuals show large distortions in size and shape of their hand [Longo and Haggard 2012a] as well as their body [Fuentes et al 2013], suggesting that people perceive both their hand and body to be wider and shorter compared to their actual size. Mischner et al [2013] showed that exposure to music videos can bias both the perceived and the ideal body size of healthy women.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can I Recognize My Body's Weight? The Influence of Shape and Texture on the Perception of Self

Piryankova

Stefanucci

Romero

et al. 2014

ACM Trans. Appl. Percept.

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The goal of this research was to investigate women's sensitivity to changes in their perceived weight by altering the body mass index (BMI) of the participants' personalized avatars displayed on a large-screen immersive display. We created the personalized avatars with a full-body 3D scanner that records the participants' body geometry and texture. We altered the weight of the personalized avatars to produce changes in BMI while keeping height, arm length, and inseam fixed and exploited the correlation between body geometry and anthropometric measurements encapsulated in a statistical body shape model created from thousands of body scans. In a 2 × 2 psychophysical experiment, we investigated the relative importance of visual cues, namely shape (own shape vs. an average female body shape with equivalent height and BMI to the participant) and texture (own photorealistic texture or checkerboard pattern texture) on the ability to accurately perceive own current body weight (by asking the participant, "Is it the same weight as you?"). Our results indicate that shape (where height and BMI are fixed) had little effect on the perception of body weight. Interestingly, the participants perceived their body weight veridically when they saw their own photo-realistic texture. As compared to avatars with photo-realistic texture, the avatars with checkerboard texture needed to be significantly thinner in order to represent the participants' current weight. This suggests that in general the avatars with checkerboard texture appeared bigger. The range that the participants accepted as their own current weight was approximately a 0.83% to −6.05% BMI change tolerance range around their perceived weight. Both the shape and the texture had an effect on the reported similarity of the body parts and the whole avatar to the participant's body. This work has implications for new measures for patients with body image disorders, as well as researchers interested in creating personalized avatars for games, training applications, or virtual reality.

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Body image distortions in healthy adults

Cited by 93 publications

References 41 publications

Bilateral Symmetry of Distortions of Tactile Size Perception

Bilateral Symmetry of Distortions of Tactile Size Perception

When less is more – Implicit preference for incomplete bodies in xenomelia

Can I Recognize My Body's Weight? The Influence of Shape and Texture on the Perception of Self

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