Investigating the role of weight in body representation through the Rubber Hand Illusion: when individual weight concerns matter

IF 1.7 4区医学 Q3 PSYCHIATRY

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry Pub Date : 2025-04-24 DOI:10.1016/j.jbtep.2025.102039

Maria Elena Navarra , Sofia Tagini , Alessandro Mauro , Federica Scarpina

{"title":"Investigating the role of weight in body representation through the Rubber Hand Illusion: when individual weight concerns matter","authors":"Maria Elena Navarra , Sofia Tagini , Alessandro Mauro , Federica Scarpina","doi":"10.1016/j.jbtep.2025.102039","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Bodily weight is a physical characteristic involved in body dissatisfaction. We investigated whether the cognitive body representation can be updated to include weight variations using the Rubber Hand Illusion. Moreover, we aimed to explore the role of the individual expression of weight concerns and fat-phobia.</div><div>Twenty-eight healthy-weight women participated to a Rubber Hand Illusion study, in which an over- and an under-weight rubber hand were tested together with a normal-weigh rubber hand. We verified the effect of hand's weight on the proprioceptive drift and the subjective experience of illusion. Moreover, we measured the individual expression of weight concerns.</div><div>As with the normal-weight rubber hand, both the underweight and overweight ones produced significant rubber hand illusion effects, as quantified by proprioceptive judgments and questionnaire ratings. Moreover, higher levels of body image concerns were linked to higher shift towards the under-weight rubber hand, as well as higher expression of fat-phobia increased higher illusory subjective experience towards the normal-weight hand.</div><div>Hands of different weights can be successfully embodied, in line with previous evidence relative to whole body illusions. Nevertheless, we underlined the role of weight concerns in modulating the illusion. Our results are meaningful for those psychopathological conditions characterized by profound changes in individual weight.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48198,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 102039"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005791625000230","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Bodily weight is a physical characteristic involved in body dissatisfaction. We investigated whether the cognitive body representation can be updated to include weight variations using the Rubber Hand Illusion. Moreover, we aimed to explore the role of the individual expression of weight concerns and fat-phobia.

Twenty-eight healthy-weight women participated to a Rubber Hand Illusion study, in which an over- and an under-weight rubber hand were tested together with a normal-weigh rubber hand. We verified the effect of hand's weight on the proprioceptive drift and the subjective experience of illusion. Moreover, we measured the individual expression of weight concerns.

As with the normal-weight rubber hand, both the underweight and overweight ones produced significant rubber hand illusion effects, as quantified by proprioceptive judgments and questionnaire ratings. Moreover, higher levels of body image concerns were linked to higher shift towards the under-weight rubber hand, as well as higher expression of fat-phobia increased higher illusory subjective experience towards the normal-weight hand.

Hands of different weights can be successfully embodied, in line with previous evidence relative to whole body illusions. Nevertheless, we underlined the role of weight concerns in modulating the illusion. Our results are meaningful for those psychopathological conditions characterized by profound changes in individual weight.

查看原文本刊更多论文

通过橡胶手错觉调查体重在身体表征中的作用：当个人体重问题重要时

体重是一种与身体不满有关的身体特征。我们研究了认知身体表征是否可以更新，以包括使用橡胶手错觉的体重变化。此外，我们的目的是探讨体重担忧和肥胖恐惧症的个体表达的作用。28名体重正常的女性参加了一项“橡胶手错觉”研究，在这项研究中，超重和体重不足的橡胶手与体重正常的橡胶手一起接受了测试。我们验证了手的重量对本体感觉漂移和错觉的主观体验的影响。此外，我们还测量了个体对体重担忧的表达。与正常体重的橡胶手一样，体重过轻和超重的人都产生了显著的橡胶手错觉效应，这是通过本体感觉判断和问卷评分来量化的。此外，对身体形象的担忧程度越高，人们越倾向于选择体重不足的橡胶手，而对肥胖的恐惧程度越高，人们对体重正常的手的主观错觉体验也越高。不同重量的手可以成功具体化，这与之前关于全身幻觉的证据一致。然而，我们强调了体重在调节这种错觉中的作用。我们的结果对于那些以个体体重的深刻变化为特征的精神病理状况是有意义的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry Multiple-

CiteScore

3.60

自引率

5.60%

发文量

期刊介绍： The publication of the book Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition (1958) by the co-founding editor of this Journal, Joseph Wolpe, marked a major change in the understanding and treatment of mental disorders. The book used principles from empirical behavioral science to explain psychopathological phenomena and the resulting explanations were critically tested and used to derive effective treatments. The second half of the 20th century saw this rigorous scientific approach come to fruition. Experimental approaches to psychopathology, in particular those used to test conditioning theories and cognitive theories, have steadily expanded, and experimental analysis of processes characterising and maintaining mental disorders have become an established research area.