Influence of neuropsychological status on body schema in eating disorders

Abstract

The study of neuropsychological features that cause eating disorders may provide a starting point for planning complex studies that allow for integral assessment of the internal and external mechanisms and patterns of eating disorders. The work aims to evaluate the influence of the neuropsychological status on features of the body schema in eating disorders. We conducted an analysis of the subjective and objective indicators of the body image on 51 women aged 20–35 years using face-relative hand position reproduction tests, the "Silhouette" method, measurement of the right hand index finger diameter and of the foot length, and a self-image questionnaire. We carried out qualitative and quantitative assessment of the neuropsychological status using the Luriev test battery. For the analysis of control functions, we used the Wisconsin sorting card test, Cantidad-Numér interference task (Canum), and "Block Span". We found that women with atypical eating behaviors noted the following features associated with a subjective attitude towards their own body: prevalence of dissatisfaction in one's emotional evaluation due to the perception of one's own appearance, stemming from the beliefs and ideas about one's ideal appearance, despite the absence of the abnormalities associated with the objectified ideas of one's own body (weight, size, body proportions). We identified modal-nonspecific control function deficiencies characteristic of different types of eating disorders.