Body Representation Distortions in Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a pervasive eating disorder. It mainly alters the mental representation of the body. In accordance with classical accounts suggesting multiple mental representations of the body all researchers agree that the body is represented in more than one mental representation. However, there is no current agreement of the type of mental representation of the body which is affected by AN. This systematic review of the literature on body representation alterations in people with AN aims to systematize the knowledge on the topic by classifying the available studies. This thesis has the scope of understanding what is the representation of the body mainly altered in AN. The PRISMA Scoping Review Guidelines were used to guide the review's methodology (Liberati et al., 2009). A systematic review of the literature was carried out. Fifty-five papers met the inclusion criteria and were subsequently analyzed. In 42 articles, the authors presented non-action-oriented tasks. Seven articles had neuroimaging and behavioral studies, while the rest (48) had exclusively behavioral studies. Body image seems to be the most damaged component of body representations in patients with AN. However, the literature also proves that body schema and other representations are crucial in evaluating pathological conditions.