Abstract
In his recent paper "Distorted body representations in anorexia nervosa" Gadsby (2017) discussed empirical evidence regarding anorexic patients' distorted body representations. In particular, he interpreted them using the O'Shaughnessy's long-term body image (LTB) hypothesis (O'Shaughnessy, 1998): individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) have a distorted LTB that tracks changes in the spatial content of the body and supplies this distorted content to other body representations. Even if we agree on the involvement of body memory in the distorted body representation, an open issue not fully addressed in the paper is: why AN patients do not update their LTBs to reflect their true dimensions? Our correspondence tries to answer to this question using a new neuropsychological and neurobiological theory: the Allocentric Lock Theory - ALT.
Highlights
In his recent paper “Distorted body representations in anorexia nervosa” Gadsby (2017) discussed empirical evidence regarding anorexic patients’ distorted body representations
Other researchers (Dakanalis et al, 2016; Gaudio & Riva, 2013; Mohr, Rickmeyer, Hummel, Ernst, & Grabhorn, 2016; Riva, 2012, 2014; Riva & Gaudio, 2012; Stinson, in press), agree on the involvement of body memory in the distorted body representations, an open issue not fully addressed in the paper is: why anorexia nervosa (AN) patients do not update their long-term body image (LTB) to reflect their true dimensions?
According to Moseley and colleagues (Moseley, Gallace, & Spence, 2012), our body representations are integrated in a coarse supramodal multi-sensory representation of the body and the space around it (“body matrix”), whose evolutive goal is to allow the individual to protect and extend her/his boundaries at both the homeostatic and psychological levels
Summary
In his recent paper “Distorted body representations in anorexia nervosa” Gadsby (2017) discussed empirical evidence regarding anorexic patients’ distorted body representations. Other researchers (Dakanalis et al, 2016; Gaudio & Riva, 2013; Mohr, Rickmeyer, Hummel, Ernst, & Grabhorn, 2016; Riva, 2012, 2014; Riva & Gaudio, 2012; Stinson, in press), agree on the involvement of body memory in the distorted body representations, an open issue not fully addressed in the paper is: why AN patients do not update their LTBs to reflect their true dimensions?
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