Eating Disorders Analysis Essay (Term Paper Sample)

Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are behavioral conditions in a person majorly characterized by a particular abnormal eating habit which is severe and persistent and causes emotional discomfort. Such conditions could affect an individual, physically, socially and psychologically (Joos et al., 2015). There are major four types of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, binge eating, bulimia nervosa and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder. Focusing on anorexia nervosa, it is marked by fear of gaining weight, extreme low weight of the body and a negative weight perception (Zaccagninoet al.,2017. Individuals with anorexia tend to value controlling their body weight so much that they end up harming their lives significantly by restricting the food intake in their meals.at times, people suffering from anorexia tend to vomit or participate in a lot of exercise for to control the body weight (Bakker et al., 2011). Sociocultural factors will have an impact on the Anorexia nervosa. Intense dieting could be motivated by the pressure to be thin from other children or age mates thus leading to development of eating disorder. Additionally, the worry of social acceptability and cultural nature of some sports and professional requirements such as modelling, figure skating and swimming require people with a lawn body (Brockmeyer et al., 2012).
Sultson et al, 2016 studied the relationship between the neural correlation of visual stimulus processing and the anorexia nervosa illness in women. They discovered that women with this type of disorder portray modified cognitive functioning more so on the poor set shifting (Brockmeyer et al., 2012). Their findings illustrate that addressing the high level of poor cognitive behavior related to frontal activation could act as an intervention to minimize the cognitive inflexibility in women who have recovered from the diseases (Wagner et al.,2015). Individuals who have recovered from this type of eating disorder should be exposed to greater activation in both parietal and frontal regions for them to perform normally in their daily activities. Therefore, restoring the weight is one major necessary move to respond back the individuals’ capability to perform tasks before looking into cognitive inflexibility in the patients (Cornelissen et al., 2013).
According to the research done by Esposito et al., 2018 about the role of body image and self-perception in anorexia nervosa, they observed different activities in the brain and estimated the body size of the participants (Esposito et al., 2016). They found out that there is significant modification in particular brain area activities in relation to body image perception and the estimated body size. The study found out evidence of reduced connectivity, volume and low activity in the brain of individuals with AN and low visualized body processing. Generally, there are abnormalities in the body of anorexia nervosa individuals specifically in their brain processing areas which provides early stage abnormality in body processing in the context of visual extrastriate and parietal cortex forming the later stage (Gaudio & Quattrocchi, 2012).
Suchan et al 2018, found out that there is a relationship between the visual perception of the body and the disorder, anorexia nervosa (Carey et al., 2020). The disturbance of the body image is the major symptom of anorexia nervosa even though the basis of these symptoms has not been understood well at the moment (Gaudio & Riva, 2013). The study aimed at investigating the network and the effective connectivity it has on the body via processing women with AN as well as using the healthy one as the control case (Hirot et al., 2013). The findings has it that misjudgment of the size of an individual’s body is the key causation factor of AN and is based on the reduced connective effectivity in the body’s processing network power (Baumann et al.,2019).
Castellini et al 2013 and other colleagues compared the similarity and differences between the individuals with anorexia nervosa and their control group (Beckmannet al.,2020). They found out that the distortion of the background image of the body is a major symptom for this type of eating disorder (Lilienthal & Weatherly, 2013). They found out that women with AN utilize the cortical networks in their condition body for processing purposes. There is no effective connectivity as it is altered in the body of women with anorexia nervosa and it is also associated with the negative judgment in people suffering from this disorder (Moscone et al., 2017).
In a study done by Brockmeyer et al, 2018, the major factors associated with the anorexia nervosa are the distorted image of the body and high dissatisfaction about one’s body which leads to restriction in the diet and abnormal compensatory behaviors (Mountford et al., 2014). Also the cognitive biases on a person’s mind such as negative interpretation of the body bias is the major maintaining element of the disorder (Riva & Gaudio,2012). The study includes 40 women with anorexia nervosa and other healthy 40 women to cat as control cases and it measured the related negative interpretation of the body for all the participants. They found out that those with AN portrayed stronger negative body interpretation than the healthy women (Pruis et al., 2012). Therefore, the findings associate negativity of the body interpretation to the anorexia nervosa psychopathology. It suggested that computerized interventions could help reverse the dysfunctional cognitive behavior which acts as the central contributing factor to development of AN (Ratnawati, 2012).
Serino et al, 2015, also back other studies up on their findings of distorted representation of the body as the core symptom of the eating disorder even though the mechanism in which it contributes to the condition is still unclear (Riva, 2016). The findings provide that eating disorders such as AN whose deficient ability to refer to allocentric representation and update them efficiently. They are blocked on the allocentric body representation of long term memory of the body(Vocks et al.,2013.
According to the studies reviews, emotions play a role in the perception of an individual with anorexia nervosa and neural substances in the body such as the state of resting network like frontal and parietal stages. Currently, the magnetic resonance imaging function attempts to shed some light on association of anorexia nervosa with the neurobiological factors (Suda et al.,2013). The brain structure and functions of people is considered a risk factor for the development of anorexia nervosa. Self-perception, body image anxiety, and perception about facial appearance are some of the key elements contributing to the development of this condition (Rieger et al., 2017).
This research is very essential in the identification of self-perception and neural perception of an individual about their body and how it contributes to development of eating disorders and particularly the anorexia nervosa. I will identify how perceived body image leads to development of poor eating habits compared to individuals with positivity about their body image. The proposal will provide more findings about the topic and add more knowledge on the relationship between body image and AN. The equations to be addressed include; how people with AN perceive their body. What factors contribute to their negative body image. This project will help come up with possible intervention and areas recommended for future research for more clarity about the disorder. Due to the high number of negative perceptions about individual’s bodies, poor diet habits among people today, it is possible to address the root causes of these particular diseases to help reduce the number of people with emotional challenges about how to go about their bodies.
References
Esposito, R., Cieri, F., di Giannantonio, M., & Tartaro, A. (2018). The role of body image and self‐perception in anorexia nervosa: the neuroimaging perspective. Journal of neuropsychology, 12(1), 41-52.
Suchan, B., Vocks, S., & Waldorf, M. (2015). Alterations in activity, volume, and connectivity of body-processing brain areas in anorexia nervosa: A review. European Psychologist, 20(1), 27.
Castellini, G., Polito, C., Bolognesi, E., D’Argenio, A., Ginestroni, A., Mascalchi, M., ... & Ricca, V. (2013). Looking at my body. Similarities and differences between anorexia nervosa patients and controls in body image visual processing. European Psychiatry, 28(7), 427-435.
Suchan, B., Bauser, D. S., Busch, M., Schulte, D., Grönemeyer, D., Herpertz, S., & Vocks, S. (2013). Reduced connectivity between the left fusiform body area and the extrastriate body area in anorexia nervosa is associated with body image distortion. Behavioural Brain Research, 241, 80-85.
Brockmeyer, T., Anderle, A., Schmidt, H., Febry, S., Wünsch-Leiteritz, W., Leiteritz, A., & Friederich, H. C. (2018). Body image related negative interpretation bias in anorexia nervosa. Behaviour research and therapy, 104, 69-73.
Serino, S., Dakanalis, A., Gaudio, S., Carrà, G., Cipresso, P., Clerici, M., & Riva, G. (2015). Out of body, out of space: impaired reference frame processing in eating disorders. Psychiatry research, 230(2), 732-734.
Sultson, H., van Meer, F., Sanders, N., van Elburg, A. A., Danner, U. N., Hoek, H. W., ... & Smeets, P. A. (2016). Associations between neural correlates of visual stimulus processing and set-shifting in ill and recovered women with anorexia nervosa. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 255, 35-42.
Bakker, R., van Meijel, B., Beukers, L., va...