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Body Image Distortion and Exposure to Extreme Body Types: Contingent Adaptation and Cross Adaptation for Self and Other
Citation
Brooks, KR and Mond, JM and Stevenson, RJ and Stephen, ID, Body Image Distortion and Exposure to Extreme Body Types: Contingent Adaptation and Cross Adaptation for Self and Other, Frontiers in neuroscience, 10 Article 334. ISSN 1662-453X (2016) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2016 The Author(s) Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
DOI: doi:10.3389/fnins.2016.00334
Abstract
Body size misperception is common amongst the general public and is a core component
of eating disorders and related conditions. While perennial media exposure to the "thin
ideal" has been blamed for this misperception, relatively little research has examined
visual adaptation as a potential mechanism. We examined the extent to which the
bodies of "self" and "other" are processed by common or separate mechanisms in
young women. Using a contingent adaptation paradigm, experiment 1 gave participants
prolonged exposure to images both of the self and of another female that had been
distorted in opposite directions (e.g., expanded other/contracted self), and assessed the
aftereffects using test images both of the self and other. The directions of the resulting
perceptual biases were contingent on the test stimulus, establishing at least some
separation between the mechanisms encoding these body types. Experiment 2 used a
cross adaptation paradigm to further investigate the extent to which these mechanisms
are independent. Participants were adapted either to expanded or to contracted images
of their own body or that of another female. While adaptation effects were largest when
adapting and testing with the same body type, confirming the separation of mechanisms
reported in experiment 1, substantial misperceptions were also demonstrated for cross
adaptation conditions, demonstrating a degree of overlap in the encoding of self and
other. In addition, the evidence of misperception of one’s own body following exposure
to "thin" and to "fat" others demonstrates the viability of visual adaptation as a model of
body image disturbance both for those who underestimate and those who overestimate
their own size
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Adaptation, Psychophysics, Body image |
| Research Division: | Health Sciences |
| Research Group: | Health services and systems |
| Research Field: | Mental health services |
| Objective Division: | Health |
| Objective Group: | Public health (excl. specific population health) |
| Objective Field: | Mental health |
| UTAS Author: | Mond, JM (Dr Jon Mond) |
| ID Code: | 117552 |
| Year Published: | 2016 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 42 |
| Deposited By: | UTAS Centre for Rural Health |
| Deposited On: | 2017-06-20 |
| Last Modified: | 2017-11-07 |
| Downloads: | 203 View Download Statistics |
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