Optimal sensory coding and exposure to extreme body types: understanding the implications for body image disturbance

Misestimating the shape or size of one's body is a key risk factor in the development of eating disorders, muscle dysmorphia and depression. One’s body image can be influenced by societal norms, personal experience and the media. Exposure to images of extreme body types, as can occur found on social media, can distort our perception of bodies, including our own. For example, if we are surrounded by highly muscular bodies for a period time, an average body will appear low in muscularity. This change in perception is predicted by theoretical models in which mental representations are shaped to match our recent experience. Our research will test whether this adaptation changes our perceptual sensitivity, making us less able to accurately judge anatomical differences between bodies that are unlike our recent experience. The distortion of perceptual sensitivity is proposed to play a key role in body size and shape misperception.