Abstract
Although body size estimation (BSE) tasks are frequently used to investigate distorted body representation in anorexia nervosa (AN), the link between anxiety and task performance has been overlooked. To investigate this, 30 female healthy controls (HCs) and 29 female AN patients completed two body attitude questionnaires and three BSE tasks (the Visual Estimation Task, the Tactile Estimation Task and the Hoop Task). Participants completed two body attitude questionnaires and three BSE tasks; the Visual Estimation Task, the Tactile Estimation Task, and the Hoop Task. The STAI-6 was administered before and after each body-related task to assess state anxiety. Results showed that state anxiety levels increased significantly more in AN patients than in HC after completing each task. Thus, performance of AN patients on BSE and other body-related tasks might not just indicate the (mis)perception of their body but also co-occur with increased state anxiety. This has implications for the interpretation of these tasks and for furthering our understanding of the mechanisms that underlie distorted body image in AN.
Highlights
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by a distorted body representation, with patients perceiving and experiencing their body as bigger than it is (e.g., Cash & Deagle, 1997)
These results demonstrate that AN patients have more negative attitudes about their body and overestimate their body size more compared to healthy controls (HCs) on the level of visual body size perception, tactile size perception, and body-scaled action
We investigated if higher levels of state anxiety co-occur with performance on body size estimation (BSE) and body attitude tasks in AN patients
Summary
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by a distorted body representation, with patients perceiving and experiencing their body as bigger than it is (e.g., Cash & Deagle, 1997). These distortions in body representation can be assessed using self-report questionnaires that focus on attitudes, cognitions, and emotions about the body and its size. New BSE tasks were developed to provide a more objective and implicit assessment of body representation. These tasks were mainly nonvisual in nature (for an overview, see Gaudio et al, 2014). These tasks assessed how patients perceived tactile stimuli applied to their body (Keizer et al, 2011; Spitoni et al, 2015) or how they planned and executed body-scaled movements (Guardia et al, 2010; Keizer et al, 2013)
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