Distortion of mental body representations

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, and occur 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, distor-tions 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 represen-tations provide a revealing window into basic aspects of self-perception.

Automated summary

This paper reviews the distortions of body representations in both healthy individuals and serious medical conditions, suggesting a potential dysfunction in mechanisms for body perception in certain diseases.