If your appearance haunts you in a sickly way, it could be due to a “crossover of wires” in your brain. Scientists from the University of California (USA) have identified thatpeople with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), a psychiatric problem little understood until now and characterized by the fact that patients are perceived as disfigured and ugly despite the fact that their appearance is absolutely normal,they have abnormal connections in the neurons of their brains.
Specifically, Jamie Feusner and his colleagues have detected that in these subjectsthere are abnormal connections between brain regions involved in visual perception and those involved in processing emotions. To reach this conclusion they have used a new magnetic resonance imaging technique that provides diffusion tensor images (DTI) that show the tracts of white matter – the “wiring” – of the nervous system. The findings, published in the specialized journalNeuropsychopharmacology, reveal that the less efficient these connections are, the worse the symptoms, especially of compulsive behaviors such as continually looking in the mirror. “In these patients, the way in which different areas of the brain connect to communicate what they see and how they feel is altered,” says Feusner.
Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder tend to noticetiny details of your face or body instead of perceiving the whole, and when detecting some “defect” they suffer so much stress that they cannot lead a normal life due to excessive fear of leaving home, a situation that sometimes culminates in suicide. The new findings could help diagnose who is predisposed to this problem and prevent it.
