Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom.
Department of Psychology, University of York, York, United Kingdom.
Behav Brain Res. 2019 Oct 17;372:112063. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2019.112063. Epub 2019 Jun 27.
Neuroimaging research has independently implicated the extrastriate body area (EBA) in distinguishing between different visual perspectives and morphologies of bodies within visual processing. However, the combined processing of these physical attributes towards neural EBA response remains unclear, and may be crucial in influencing higher-order, aesthetic evaluation of bodies. Indeed, EBA alterations amongst eating disorder patients have been associated with disturbances in body image, and disruption to EBA activity amongst healthy individuals has been shown to influence aesthetic evaluations made towards bodies. Therefore, the present study used images of slim and large female bodies viewed from egocentric and allocentric perspectives, to investigate neural EBA response amongst healthy females (N = 30). In addition, participants provided behavioural aesthetic and weight evaluations of all model stimuli. Results revealed an interaction, bilaterally, between visual perspective and body size towards EBA activity, with multi-voxel pattern analysis revealing distinct neural patterns between the four conditions. However, EBA activity did not relate to non-clinical eating disorder psychopathology. No direct relationship was found between EBA activity and behavioural evaluations of model stimuli; however, a whole brain analysis revealed that higher-order, prefrontal regions were associated with cognitive evaluations of large bodies. Taken together, our results suggest that the EBA is an integral core region in discriminating between multiple physical attributes of the body, which is likely to provide important information to higher-order brain regions which make aesthetic evaluations towards bodies.
神经影像学研究独立表明，在视觉处理过程中，额下回身体区（EBA）参与区分不同的视觉视角和身体形态。然而，这些物理属性的综合处理对神经 EBA 反应的影响尚不清楚，这可能对身体的更高阶审美评估产生关键影响。事实上，饮食失调患者的 EBA 改变与身体意象障碍有关，而健康个体的 EBA 活动中断已被证明会影响对身体的审美评估。因此，本研究使用了从自我中心和客观视角观看的苗条和肥胖女性身体的图像，来研究健康女性（N=30）的神经 EBA 反应。此外，参与者对所有模特刺激物进行了行为审美和体重评估。结果显示，EBA 活动在双侧存在视觉视角和身体大小之间的相互作用，多体素模式分析揭示了四种条件之间的不同神经模式。然而，EBA 活动与非临床饮食失调的心理病理学无关。EBA 活动与模特刺激物的行为评估之间没有直接关系；然而，全脑分析显示，高阶前额叶区域与对大身体的认知评估有关。总之，我们的结果表明，EBA 是区分身体多个物理属性的核心区域，这可能为对身体进行审美评估的高阶大脑区域提供重要信息。
