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Visual imagery and depersonalisation
M V Lambert1, C Senior, M L Phillips
1Depersonalisation Research Unit, Division of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.
Psychopathology
|January 19, 2002
Summary
People with depersonalisation disorder (DD) experience impaired visual imagery, especially for self-related content. Despite subjective issues, their visual perception abilities remain intact, distinguishing imagery from perception.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Depersonalisation disorder (DD) is characterized by persistent feelings of detachment from oneself.
- The relationship between subjective imagery deficits and objective perceptual abilities in DD is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between self-reported imagery ability and symptoms in individuals with DD.
- To compare the visual perception abilities of patients with DD to controls.
Main Methods:
- Self-report questionnaires assessed imagery ability and symptoms in 28 individuals with DD.
- A subgroup of 10 patients underwent neuropsychological testing of visual perception.
- Comparison groups included age- and sex-matched healthy controls and patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Main Results:
- Individuals with DD reported significantly impaired visual imagery generation, particularly for self and social stimuli.
- Impaired imagery correlated with depersonalisation symptoms, dissociative symptoms, and depressed mood.
- Neuropsychological tests revealed no deficits in visual perception in the patient subgroup compared to controls.
Conclusions:
- Subjective visual imagery deficits in depersonalisation disorder are not indicative of underlying perceptual impairments.
- Findings support a distinction between visual imagery generation and visual perception processes in DD.
- This research contributes to understanding the cognitive profile of depersonalisation disorder.