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Sex differences in own and other body perception
Sarah M Burke1,2, D S Adnan Majid3, Amir H Manzouri2,4
1Brain & Development Research Centre, Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Human Brain Mapping
|November 16, 2018
Summary
Men and women show different brain activity when viewing bodies. While own body perception is similar, men exhibit heightened attention and reward responses to others
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Sex Differences
Background:
- Self and body perception are crucial for identity and social interaction.
- Disturbances in body perception are linked to psychiatric conditions like anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder.
- Prevalence sex ratios in these disorders suggest potential sex-based differences in neural processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate sex differences in neural activation during own body perception.
- To explore how viewing same-sex and opposite-sex bodies influences brain activity differently in men and women.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activation.
- 15 healthy males and 15 healthy females participated in a Body Perception task.
- Participants viewed their own body, same-sex, and opposite-sex bodies, rating self-resemblance.
Main Results:
- No sex differences were observed in brain activation for own body perception versus a control image.
- Men showed stronger activation in attention and reward regions when viewing others' bodies (same-sex and opposite-sex).
- Women displayed greater activation in striatal, medial-prefrontal, and insular cortices when viewing their own body compared to opposite-sex bodies.
Conclusions:
- Viewing others' bodies, especially the opposite sex, may hold greater salience for men.
- Own body images appear more salient for women.
- These findings suggest neurobiological correlates for women's higher vulnerability to body perception disorders.
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