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Women & Eating Disorders

The stereotypical anorexic is female, and, in fact, statistics show considerably more women are susceptible to eating disorders than men. Ever wonder why that is?

In what was surprisingly the first ever such study of its kind, test subjects had their brain activity monitored while perceiving themselves as either slim or obese. The researchers learned that the way we perceive our bodies actually triggers neural responses that ultimately lead to body dissatisfaction.

The work was done at the University of York in the UK and the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

The participants were immersed in a virtual reality where they observed themselves with either a slim or obese body from a first person perspective. Simultaneously, scientists monitored their brain activity in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. They discovered a direct link between activity in the section of the brain relating to body perception and the area which controls subjective emotional processes such as fear or anger.

Professor Henrik Ehrsson, Professor at the Karolinska Institutet and co-author of the study, explained: “We know that woman are at greater risk at developing eating disorders than men, and our study demonstrates that this vulnerability is related to reduced activity in a particular area of the frontal lobe - the anterior cingulate cortex – that is related to emotional processing.”

This is why people suffering from anorexia nervosa and similar eating disorders can be affected by a mistaken perception of their body as overweight. By “imprinting” various body imagery upon healthy individuals via virtual reality, the researchers were able to examine the link between perception and emotion without the possibility that body starvation could affect biological results, as is the case when studying those with eating disorders.

Dr. Catherine Preston, Lecturer in York’s Department of Psychology and lead author of the study, said: “In today’s Western society, concerns regarding body size and negative feelings towards one’s body are all too common. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying negative feelings towards the body and how they relate to body perception and eating-disorder pathology.

“This research is vital in revealing the link between body perception and our emotional responses regarding body satisfaction, and may help explain the neurobiological underpinnings of eating-disorder vulnerability in women.”

The study was published in the Oxford Journal Cerebral Cortex.