TY  - JOUR
A1  - Baumann, Nicola
A1  - Kazén, Miguel
A1  - Twenhöfel, Janne F.
A1  - Kuhl, Julius
A2  - Pazzaglia, Mariella
T1  - When do anorexic patients perceive their body as too fat? Aggravating and ameliorating factors
T2  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Objective
Our study investigated body image representations in female patients with anorexia nervosa
and healthy controls using a size estimation with pictures of their own body. We also
explored a method to reduce body image distortions through right hemispheric activation.
Method
Pictures of participants’ own bodies were shown on the left or right visual fields for 130 ms
after presentation of neutral, positive, or negative word primes, which could be self-relevant
or not, with the task of classifying the picture as “thinner than”, “equal to”, or “fatter than”
one’s own body. Subsequently, activation of the left- or right hemispheric through right- or
left-hand muscle contractions for 3 min., respectively. Finally, participants completed the
size estimation task again.
Results
The distorted “fatter than” body image was found only in patients and only when a picture of
their own body appeared on the right visual field (left hemisphere) and was preceded by
negative self-relevant words. This distorted perception of the patients’ body image was
reduced after left-hand muscle contractions (right hemispheric activation).
Discussion
To reduce body image distortions it is advisable to find methods that help anorexia nervosa
patients to increase their self-esteem. The body image distortions were ameliorated after
right hemispheric activation. A related method to prevent distorted body-image representations
in these patients may be Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
therapy.
KW  - physiological parameters
KW  - Anorexia nervosa
KW  - Patientin
KW  - Körpererfahrung
KW  - Verzerrung
KW  - Reduktion
KW  - Verstärkung
KW  - Aktivierung
KW  - Rechte Hemisphäre
Y1  - 2019
UR  - https://ubt.opus.hbz-nrw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/1118
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:385-1-11188
VL  - 14
IS  - 2
PB  - Public Library of Science
ER  -