TY - JOUR
T1 - Distinct Neural Response to Visual Perspective and Body Size in the Extrastriate Body Area
AU - Carey, Mark Andrew
AU - Knight, Ruth Elizabeth
AU - Preston, Catherine Elizabeth Jane
N1 - © 2019 Elsevier B.V. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy
PY - 2019/10/17
Y1 - 2019/10/17
N2 - Neuroimaging research has independently implicated the extrastriate body area (EBA) in distinguishing between different visual perspectives and morphologies of bodies within visual processing. However, the combined processing of these physical attributes towards neural EBA response remains unclear, and may be crucial in influencing higher-order, aesthetic evaluation of bodies. Indeed, EBA alterations amongst eating disorder patients have been associated with disturbances in body image, and disruption to EBA activity amongst healthy individuals shown to influence aesthetic evaluations made towards bodies. Therefore, the present study used images of slim and large female bodies viewed from egocentric and allocentric perspectives, to investigate neural EBA response in healthy females (N=30). In addition, participants provided behavioural aesthetic and weight evaluations of all model stimuli. Results revealed an interaction, bilaterally, between visual perspective and body size in EBA activity, with multi-voxel pattern analysis revealing distinct neural patterns between the four conditions. However, EBA activity did not relate to non-clinical eating disorder psychopathology. No direct relationship was found between EBA activity and behavioural evaluations of model stimuli; however, a whole brain analysis revealed that higher-order, prefrontal regions were associated with cognitive evaluations of large bodies. Taken together, our results suggest that the EBA is an integral core region in discriminating between multiple physical attributes of the body, which is likely to provide important information to higher-order brain regions which make aesthetic evaluations towards bodies.
AB - Neuroimaging research has independently implicated the extrastriate body area (EBA) in distinguishing between different visual perspectives and morphologies of bodies within visual processing. However, the combined processing of these physical attributes towards neural EBA response remains unclear, and may be crucial in influencing higher-order, aesthetic evaluation of bodies. Indeed, EBA alterations amongst eating disorder patients have been associated with disturbances in body image, and disruption to EBA activity amongst healthy individuals shown to influence aesthetic evaluations made towards bodies. Therefore, the present study used images of slim and large female bodies viewed from egocentric and allocentric perspectives, to investigate neural EBA response in healthy females (N=30). In addition, participants provided behavioural aesthetic and weight evaluations of all model stimuli. Results revealed an interaction, bilaterally, between visual perspective and body size in EBA activity, with multi-voxel pattern analysis revealing distinct neural patterns between the four conditions. However, EBA activity did not relate to non-clinical eating disorder psychopathology. No direct relationship was found between EBA activity and behavioural evaluations of model stimuli; however, a whole brain analysis revealed that higher-order, prefrontal regions were associated with cognitive evaluations of large bodies. Taken together, our results suggest that the EBA is an integral core region in discriminating between multiple physical attributes of the body, which is likely to provide important information to higher-order brain regions which make aesthetic evaluations towards bodies.
U2 - 10.1016/j.bbr.2019.112063
DO - 10.1016/j.bbr.2019.112063
M3 - Article
SN - 0166-4328
VL - 372
JO - Behavioural Brain Research
JF - Behavioural Brain Research
M1 - 112063
ER -