Less than a pretty face: Brain scans show how a disorder leads individuals to perceive themselves as ugly.

    Despite living in a culture obsessed with physical flawlessness, most people in the U.S. have a relatively realistic perception of their own form and face-blemishes, bulges and all. About one to two percent of the population, however, suffers from a recognized psychological illness, known as body dysmorphic disorder （or BDD）, which causes them to be preoccupied with physical defects that they think make them look repugnant. Such tendencies can lead some people to extreme and frequent plastic surgeries and even suicide.

    A new study used brain scans to see how patients' minds worked when looking at faces-both of others and themselves. The results, published online February 1 in Archives of General Psychiatry, show that people with BDD seem to get hung up on details and hint at a link with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

    The new case-control study used functional magnetic-resonance imaging （fMRI） to study brain activity among 33 people （17 control subjects and 16 with BDD） as the subjects looked at photos of their face and that of a familiar celebrity. Previous research and clinical observation had found that people with BDD tend to "focus primarily on details of their appearance at the expense of global or configural aspects," the researchers wrote.

    So following this lead, the researchers （led by Jamie Feusner, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles） showed subjects standard photos as well as altered versions: one in which only the details remained and another in which only basic, blurred information remained.

    Although the study was small, the researchers found a distinct difference between how the brains of the people with BDD and the control individuals reacted upon seeing the images. Analysis of the scans showed that "individuals with BDD have abnormal brain activation patterns when viewing their own face, showing hyperactivity in primary and secondary visual processing regions for [blurred] faces and hyperactivity in frontostriatal systems for [normal] faces," noted the researchers. This tendency to focus in on the details at the expense of an "ability to contextualize them configurally or holistically" might be at the root of the disorder and "suggests aberrant activity patterns for faces in general," the researchers wrote.

    The severity of these effects appeared to correlate with the level of BBD symptoms in people who had the disorder.

    These cognitive patterns, the scientists report, represent "preliminary evidence of a possible similarity in functional neuroanatomy between BDD and obsessive-compulsive disorder."

    臉蛋不夠漂亮： 腦部掃描發(fā)現(xiàn)了導(dǎo)致人們認(rèn)為自己很丑的一種疾病。

    雖然我們生活在一個(gè)對(duì)身體和容貌苛求完美的文化環(huán)境里面，但是大多數(shù)美國(guó)人對(duì)他們自己的形態(tài)和面容還是有一個(gè)相對(duì)現(xiàn)實(shí)的認(rèn)識(shí)-他們接受自己的雀斑、身體上某些部位比較肥胖等缺點(diǎn)。不過，有大約1-2%的人罹患一種稱為軀體變形障礙（body dysmorphic disorder,簡(jiǎn)稱BDD）的心理疾病，這種疾病讓患者對(duì)自己的身體缺點(diǎn)憂心忡忡，他們認(rèn)為這些缺點(diǎn)讓他們看起來十分討厭。這種傾向能導(dǎo)致一些人做極端而且頻繁的美容手術(shù)，甚至導(dǎo)致一些人自殺。

    一項(xiàng)新的研究使用腦部掃描技術(shù)來觀察患者的內(nèi)心在看人臉時(shí)候是如何反應(yīng)的？,患者們既看自己的臉，也看別人的臉。這項(xiàng)研究結(jié)果在線發(fā)表在2月1日的《普通精神病學(xué)文獻(xiàn)》（Archives of General Psychiatry）雜志上，該研究顯示患有BDD疾病的人看起來非常關(guān)注細(xì)節(jié)，而且可能患有強(qiáng)迫癥。

    這項(xiàng)新的病例對(duì)照研究使用功能核磁共振成像技術(shù)（functional magnetic-resonance imaging,簡(jiǎn)稱fMRI）研究人們?cè)诳此麄冏约旱囊约按蟊娒餍堑拿娌繄D片的時(shí)候的腦部活動(dòng)情況。有33人參與了這項(xiàng)研究，其中17人作為對(duì)照，另外16人患有BDD.以前的研究和臨床觀察發(fā)現(xiàn)，患有BDD的人容易"把主要精力集中在他們面容的細(xì)節(jié)上，而忽視了整體因素。"

    因此就有了接下來的研究，研究者們（由來自加利福尼亞大學(xué)洛杉磯分校大衛(wèi)格芬醫(yī)學(xué)院的 Jamie Feusner領(lǐng)導(dǎo)）給被試看一些標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的照片和一些修改過的照片，在這些修改過的照片中，一些照片僅僅只留下細(xì)節(jié)，而另外一些照片只留下一些基本的、模糊的信息。

    雖然這項(xiàng)研究規(guī)模很小，但是研究者們發(fā)現(xiàn)，患有BDD的人和控制組的人在看這些面部圖片的時(shí)候，他們大腦的反應(yīng)有顯著的差異。對(duì)這些腦部掃描進(jìn)行分析后，研究者們發(fā)現(xiàn)"患有BDD的人在觀看他們自己面部的時(shí)候，他們的大腦活動(dòng)顯示異�；钴S，當(dāng)他們觀看[模糊]面部圖像的時(shí)候，他們的一級(jí)和二級(jí)視覺加工區(qū)域表現(xiàn)非常活躍，而當(dāng)他們觀看[正常]面部圖像的時(shí)候，他們的額紋狀體系統(tǒng)非�；钴S。"研究者們?cè)谡撐闹袑懙剑?quot;這種只對(duì)細(xì)節(jié)的關(guān)注而不是把細(xì)節(jié)放到整體環(huán)境中來考慮的傾向可能是BDD的根源，這也大體上解釋說明了在觀看面部圖片時(shí)大腦的反常活動(dòng)模式"

    這種影響的嚴(yán)重程度與患者的BDD癥狀的嚴(yán)重程度相關(guān)。

    科學(xué)家們?cè)谘芯繄?bào)告中稱，這些認(rèn)知模式初步顯示"在功能神經(jīng)解剖學(xué)上，BDD和強(qiáng)迫癥可能存在相似的地方。"

    Vocabulary:

    Perceive: 注意到；意識(shí)到；認(rèn)為

    Ugly: 丑陋的

    Obsess: 使癡迷

    Flawless: 完美的；無瑕的

    Blemish: 斑點(diǎn)；疤痕

    Bulge: （身體的）肥胖部位

    Psychological: 心理的

    Body Dysmorphic Disorder: 軀體變形障礙

    Preoccupy: 使日夜思考；使憂心忡忡

    Defect:缺點(diǎn)；缺陷

    Repugnant:令人討厭的

    Plastic Surgery: 美容手術(shù)

    Psychiatry: 精神病學(xué)

    Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: 強(qiáng)迫癥

    Celebrity: 名人

    Clinical: 臨床的

    Configural: 格局的

    Lead: 實(shí)例；范例；榜樣

    Blur: 模糊

    Distinct: 顯著的

    Abnormal: 不正常的

    Hyperactivity: 過度活躍

    Frontostriatal system:額紋狀體系統(tǒng)

    Contextualize: 將…置于背景中考慮

    Holistically: 整體地；全面地

    Aberrant: 反常的；異常的；違反常規(guī)的

    Severity: 嚴(yán)重性

    Correlate: 相互關(guān)聯(lián)

    Cognitive: 認(rèn)知的

    Preliminary: 初步的；開始的

    Neuroanatomy: 神經(jīng)解剖學(xué)