Abstract
The aim of this study is to investigate the bodily-self in Restrictive Anorexia, focusing on two basic aspects related to the bodily self: autonomic strategies in social behavior, in which others' social desirability features, and social cues (e.g., gaze) are modulated, and interoception (i.e., the sensitivity to stimuli originating inside the body). Furthermore, since previous studies carried out on healthy individuals found that interoception seems to contribute to the autonomic regulation of social behavior, as measured by Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA), we aimed to explore this link in anorexia patients, whose ability to perceive their bodily signal seems to be impaired. To this purpose, we compared a group of anorexia patients (ANg; restrictive type) with a group of Healthy Controls (HCg) for RSA responses during both a resting state and a social proxemics task, for their explicit judgments of comfort in social distances during a behavioral proxemics task, and for their Interoceptive Accuracy (IA). The results showed that ANg displayed significantly lower social disposition and a flattened autonomic reactivity during the proxemics task, irrespective of the presence of others' socially desirable features or social cues. Moreover, unlike HCg, the autonomic arousal of ANg did not guide behavioral judgments of social distances. Finally, IA was strictly related to social disposition in both groups, but with opposite trends in ANg. We conclude that autonomic imbalance and its altered relationship with interoception might have a crucial role in anorexia disturbances.
Highlights
“How much, how much I enjoy the streamlinedness of it, the simplicity
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder characterized by restriction of food energy intake due to an irrational fear of gaining weight and a distorted way in which body shape and weight are experienced that have an inappropriate influence on self- evaluation (DSM V—American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
Group comparisons of socio-demographic features and questionnaire data obtained for the two participant groups were performed with a series of independent samples two tailed t-tests, revealing a significantly lower weight and BMI for patients with anorexia nervosa than controls
Summary
“How much, how much I enjoy the streamlinedness of it, the simplicity. I really care about that. Thanks to the support of neuroscience, several neurobiological models of eating disorders emerged; Kaye et al (2009, 2010, 2013, 2015) for example, consider AN as the product of an altered serotonin and dopamine metabolism which in turn may leads to dysfunctional neural process involved in emotion and appetite Such alterations would contribute to AN trait-related vulnerabilities like anxiety, emotional recognition and regulation deficits (Schmidt et al, 1993; Zonnevijlle-Bendek et al, 2002; Kucharska-Pietura et al, 2004; Schmidt and Treasure, 2006; Harrison et al, 2009; Rowsell et al, 2016), insensitivity to reward (Kaye et al, 2009; Harrison et al, 2010), disturbed perception of physical states (Fassino et al, 2004; Pollatos et al, 2008; see below) and cognitive inflexibility and rigidity (Katzman et al, 2001; Anderluh et al, 2003; Kucharska-Pietura et al, 2004; Tchanturia et al, 2004; Cassin and von Ranson, 2005; Chui et al, 2008; Titova et al, 2013) that may be exacerbated by puberty and social desirability, given rise to the onset of AN. Fairburn et al (2003) proposed the Trans diagnostic theory of eating disorder, highlighting the role of self-esteem, perfectionism, and mood intolerance as core factors of eating disorder maintenance
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