Article:
Toward a Neurobiology of Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Authors: Sanjaya Saxena, MD, and Jamie D. Feusner, MD
Published in Primary Psychology
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is the preoccupation of physical appearance or the obsession with a body part that leads to serious anxiety and distress. Yes, we all have our insecurities about appearance, but BDD takes these to the extreme. Patients often have distorted views of their appearances. Many of these disorders involve delusional beliefs. BDD is often paired with or causes other types of disorders, including eating disorders, mood disorders, social anxiety disorders, and personality disorders.
The article asserts that various types of body dysmorphic disorders may be related to brain lesions. Research has found that the right temporal lobe and the posterior parietal lobe is involved in body perception, meaning lesions in these areas produce symptoms of BDD such as abnormal visual perception, distortion of body image, depressed mood, anxiety, somatic preoccupations, and delusion. One man with right temporal lobe epilepsy developed a belief that he smelled so bad that everyone around him could notice it.
I find it so interesting how an impairment of the brain could lead to becoming obsessed with one particular part of the body. Another case describes a man with damage to his left hemisphere, which caused him to become obsessed with the size and shape of his nose. With the complexities of the brain, I wonder if neuroscientists will ever be able to pinpoint certain spots that connect to self-image of specific parts of the body. Also, how does the brain affect different levels of self-esteem? What makes one person’s self-image so much more positive than another’s?
link to video:
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/what-is-body-dysmorphic-disorder/69fuu62
This article summary was the most interesting I have read thus far. I have never even considered body image to be a result of neural processes and it is refreshing as well as alarming to hear. It makes me wonder that since modern culture is so wrapped up in appearance, if somewhere during human evolution, we shaped our brain to hold our looks in high priority. I am also curious if this article is labeling BDD as simply a disease or if any form of body anxiety takes root in some sort of brain abnormality (that we may have evolved with).
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of BDD, so this article was very interesting to read. I was kind of confused about the man who was super self-conscious of his body odor though. I thought BDD was related to visual perception of the body. How is body odor something physically apparent on a body part? Besides that though, I'm wondering if people could reverse the effects of these lesions. For example, if I was told that a lesion was causing the distortion of the appearance of my body, would I have more self-confidence or see myself differently, or would it still look the same?
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