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Distortion of mental body representations

Longo, Matthew (2022) Distortion of mental body representations. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 26 (3), pp. 241-254. ISSN 1364-6613.

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Abstract

Our body is central to our sense of self, and distorted body representations are found in several serious medical conditions. This paper reviews evidence that distortions of body representations are also common in healthy individuals, in domains including tactile spatial perception, proprioception, and the conscious body image. Across domains, there is a general tendency for body width to be overestimated compared to body length. Intriguingly, distortions in both eating disorders and chronic pain appear to be exaggerations of this baseline pattern of distortions, suggesting that these conditions may relate to dysfunction of mechanisms for body perception. Distortions of body representations provide a revealing window on basic aspects of self perception.

Metadata

Item Type: Article
Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Self, Body Image, Touch, Proprioception, Pain, Eating Disorders
School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
Depositing User: Matthew Longo
Date Deposited: 20 Dec 2021 14:33
Last Modified: 16 Apr 2025 05:57
URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/46876

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