Psychophysics reveals a right hemispheric contribution to body image distortions in women but not men

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_8DAC1B61EE8C
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Psychophysics reveals a right hemispheric contribution to body image distortions in women but not men
Journal
Neuropsychologia
Author(s)
Mohr C., Porter G., Benton C. P.
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2007
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
45
Number
13
Pages
2942-2950
Language
english
Notes
0028-3932 (Print)
0028-3932 (Linking)
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Abstract
We tested the hypothesis that the right cerebral hemisphere contributes to the enhanced body image distortions seen in women when compared to men. Using classical psychophysics, 60 right-handed healthy participants (30 women) were briefly presented with size-distorted pictures of themselves, another person (an experimenter), and a non-corporal, familiar object (a coke bottle) to the central, right, and left visual field. Participants had to decide whether the presented stimulus was fatter or thinner than the real body/object, and thus compare the presented picture with the stored representation of the stimulus from memory. From these data we extracted the amount of image distortion at which participants judged the various stimuli to be veridical. We found that right visual field presentations (initial left hemisphere processing) revealed a general "fatter" bias, which was more evident for bodies than for objects. Crucially, a "fatter" bias with own body presentations in the left visual field (initial right hemisphere processing) was only found for women. Our findings suggest that right visual field presentation results in a general size overestimation, and that this overestimation is more pronounced for bodies than for objects. Moreover, the particular "fatter" bias after own body presentations to the left visual field in women supports the notion of a specific role of the right hemisphere in sex-specific body image distortion.
Keywords
Adolescent Adult Analysis of Variance *Body Image Cerebral Cortex/*physiology Discrimination (Psychology)/physiology Female Functional Laterality/*physiology Humans Judgment Male Perceptual Distortion/*physiology Psychophysics Reference Values Self Concept Sex Characteristics Size Perception/*physiology Statistics, Nonparametric
Create date
17/01/2011 19:07
Last modification date
20/08/2019 14:51
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