Studies by Jamie Feusner, M.D., Clinic Psychiatric Consultant, Los Angeles Body Dysmorphic Disorder Clinic
Informational Processing in Body Dysmorphic Disorder and the Functional Neuroanatomical Correlates (“BDD fMRI Study”) Principal Investigator: Jamie Feusner, M.D. Co-Investigators: Susan Bookheimer, Ph.D. and Alexander Bystritsky, M.D. UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences Clinically, individuals with BDD appear to have distortions in their perception of their own appearance, often selectively perceiving small details of their “defects.” They also scrutinize details of others’ appearance and compare them to their own. Could one of the bases for these symptoms have to do with how they are visually processing information? In this study we are using a type of brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine which regions of the brain are active while processing visual information. Specifically we wish to determine if there are differences in how the brains of individuals with BDD, as compared to those of healthy control subjects, process photographs of others’ faces with different levels of detail. Enrollment is now closed.
Processing of Faces with Emotional Expressions in Body Dysmorphic Disorder Principal Investigator: Jamie Feusner, M.D. Co-Investigators: Susan Bookheimer, Ph.D. and Alexander Bystritsky, M.D. UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences Previous studies have demonstrated that individuals with BDD tend to misinterpret emotional expressions of others. Could this misinterpretation be due to their beliefs about their own appearance and subsequently how others may be judging them, or do they perhaps have more fundamental abnormalities in processing emotional faces or faces in general? This study was designed to evaluate the speed and accuracy of visual processing of faces with emotional expressions and neutral expressions. Enrollment is now closed.
