Can Virtual Reality Body-Swapping Technique Improve Body Image?

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - Nov. 4, 2015 - PRLog -- In a new study using a body-swapping illusion, women shown images of themselves in virtual reality with a skinny belly estimated their body size more accurately compared to their estimates of various body parts made before the virtual body was substituted for their own. Virtual reality body-swapping may be able to change a person's "allocentric memory" of the body and be useful in treating individuals suffering from eating or weight disorders who overestimate their body size, according to an article published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/). The article is available for free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/cyber.2015.0229) website until December 4, 2015.

In "Virtual Reality Body-Swapping: A Tool for Modifying the Allocentric Memory of the Body (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/cyber.2015.0229),"

Silvia Serino, Giuseppe Riva, and coauthors from IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, and University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy, University of Pavia, Italy, and Utrecht University, The Netherlands, report that after the women in the study embodied the virtual body with a skinny belly they updated their allocentric body, which is defined by a person's estimates of the width and circumference of various body parts.

“This research provides a valuable first step in understanding of body image distortion and disturbance in those with eating disorders and obesity,” says Editor-in-Chief Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN, Interactive Media Institute, San Diego, California and Virtual Reality Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium. “Exploring the potential of this Virtual Reality approach in a clinical population will be an important next step.”

About the Journal
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking (http://www.liebertpub.com/cyber) is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly online with Open Access options and in printthat explores the psychological and social issues surrounding the Internet and interactive technologies.  Complete tables of contents and a sample issue may be viewed on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking (http://www.liebertpub.com/cyber) website.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/) is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Games for Health Journal, Telemedicine and e-Health, andJournal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry’s most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm’s 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com/) website.