The Emotional and Attentional Impact of Exposure to One's Own Body in Bulimia Nervosa: A Physiological View

Abstract

BackgroundBody dissatisfaction is the most relevant body image disturbance in bulimia nervosa (BN). Research has shown that viewing one's own body evokes negative thoughts and emotions in individuals with BN. However, the psychophysiological mechanisms involved in this negative reaction have not yet been clearly established. Our aim was to examine the emotional and attentional processes that are activated when patients with BN view their own bodies.MethodWe examined the effects of viewing a video of one's own body on the physiological (eye-blink startle, cardiac defense, and skin conductance) and subjective (pleasure, arousal, and control ratings) responses elicited by a burst of 110 dB white noise of 500 ms duration. The participants were 30 women with BN and 30 healthy control women. The experimental task consisted of two consecutive and counterbalanced presentations of the auditory stimulus preceded, alternatively, by a video of the participant's own body versus no such video.ResultsThe results showed that, when viewing their own bodies, women with BN experienced (a) greater inhibition of the startle reflex, (b) greater cardiac acceleration in the first component of the defense reaction, (c) greater skin conductance response, and (d) less subjective pleasure and control combined with greater arousal, compared with the control participants.ConclusionOur findings suggest that, for women with BN, peripheral-physiological responses to self-images are dominated by attentional processes, which provoke an immobility reaction caused by a dysfunctional negative response to their own body.

Meet OLAF, a Good Friend of the IAPS! The Open Library of Affective Foods: A Tool to Investigate the Emotional Impact of Food in Adolescents

“…In emotion research, the affective dimension of dominance is typically regarded as less informative compared to the classic dimensions of valence and arousal [19] , and this conception is based on the consistently high correlation between dominance and valence ratings: pleasant stimuli, including food [26] , make healthy participants feel good (high valence) and in control (high dominance), whereas unpleasant stimuli make them feel bad (low valence) and out of control (low dominance). However, data from our research group repeatedly noted [24] , [50] that dominance becomes highly informative in clinical populations: when food stimuli or one's own body are presented to subclinical (high food craving and/or high body dissatisfaction) or clinical (bulimia nervosa) populations, these groups feel less ‘in control’, worse, and more activated in comparison with healthy controls, hinting that the dimension of dominance, included in the OLAF adolescents ratings, could be valuable in future studies on the development of problematic eating patterns.…”

The risk of eating disorders comorbid with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Interestingly, it has been suggested that attentional processes could dominate the physiological responses to self‐image exposure in BN patients because of an abnormal arousal reaction with negative feelings when viewing their own bodies, probably because of an attentional bias …”

Body Dissatisfaction and Mirror Exposure: Evidence for a Dissociation between Self-Report and Physiological Responses in Highly Body-Dissatisfied Women

“…Research on defensive behavior is also congruent with the above interpretation. Ortega-Roldán [ 47 ] found that BN patients displayed attenuated startle reflex amplitudes when viewing their own bodies in comparison with healthy controls. Given that the startle reflex is evoked when the organism has the intention of actively interacting with the environment [ 27 ], its inhibition in BN also supports the view of a passive-defensive coping style.…”