Browse
Submit Data
Databases
API
Help

Dataset Information

11 Views

0 Connections

0 Citations

0 Reanalyses

0 Downloads

Omics score: 0

Being Barbie: the size of one's own body determines the perceived size of the world.

ABSTRACT: A classical question in philosophy and psychology is if the sense of one's body influences how one visually perceives the world. Several theoreticians have suggested that our own body serves as a fundamental reference in visual perception of sizes and distances, although compelling experimental evidence for this hypothesis is lacking. In contrast, modern textbooks typically explain the perception of object size and distance by the combination of information from different visual cues. Here, we describe full body illusions in which subjects experience the ownership of a doll's body (80 cm or 30 cm) and a giant's body (400 cm) and use these as tools to demonstrate that the size of one's sensed own body directly influences the perception of object size and distance. These effects were quantified in ten separate experiments with complementary verbal, questionnaire, manual, walking, and physiological measures. When participants experienced the tiny body as their own, they perceived objects to be larger and farther away, and when they experienced the large-body illusion, they perceived objects to be smaller and nearer. Importantly, despite identical retinal input, this "body size effect" was greater when the participants experienced a sense of ownership of the artificial bodies compared to a control condition in which ownership was disrupted. These findings are fundamentally important as they suggest a causal relationship between the representations of body space and external space. Thus, our own body size affects how we perceive the world.

SUBMITTER: van der Hoort B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3102093 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Json Xml

Similar Datasets

Body size determines eyespot size and presence in coral reef fishes.

Project description:Numerous organisms display conspicuous eyespots. These eye-like patterns have been shown to effectively reduce predation by either deflecting strikes away from nonvital organs or by intimidating potential predators. While investigated extensively in terrestrial systems, determining what factors shape eyespot form in colorful coral reef fishes remains less well known. Using a broadscale approach we ask: How does the size of the eyespot relate to the actual eye, and at what size during ontogeny are eyespots acquired or lost? We utilized publicly available images to generate a dataset of 167 eyespot-bearing reef fish species. We measured multiple features relating to the size of the fish, its eye, and the size of its eyespot. In reef fishes, the area of the eyespot closely matches that of the real eye; however, the eyespots "pupil" is nearly four times larger than the real pupil. Eyespots appear at about 20 mm standard length. However, there is a marked decrease in the presence of eyespots in fishes above 48 mm standard length; a size which is tightly correlated with significant decreases in documented mortality rates. Above 75-85 mm, the cost of eyespots appears to outweigh their benefit. Our results identify a "size window" for eyespots in coral reef fishes, which suggests that eyespot use is strictly body size-dependent within this group.

| S-EPMC7417216 | biostudies-literature

Trends in the perceived body size of adolescent males and females in Scotland, 1990-2014: changing associations with mental well-being.

Project description:ObjectivesThis paper explores trends in Scottish adolescents' body size perceptions and associated mental well-being outcomes.MethodsData were collected on Scottish 11-, 13-, and 15-year-olds by the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study between 1990 and 2014 (n = 42,312). Logistic regression was used to examine changes in the prevalence of over- and underweight perceptions. Ordinal and linear regressions were used to examine changes in the association between body perception and mental well-being.ResultsLittle change was observed in over- or underweight perceptions. However, relative to those perceiving their body as 'about right', those perceiving themselves as overweight reported decreasing confidence (all groups), decreasing happiness (11- and 13-year-old girls), and increasing psychological health symptoms (all girls and 15-year-old boys). Perceived underweight is associated with poor well-being, especially in males, but we present little evidence that this is a recent phenomenon.ConclusionsWe present evidence suggesting that the association between body size perception and poor mental health in adolescence is changing over time. This may play a role in the recently observed worsening of mental well-being in Scottish adolescents.

| S-EPMC5766710 | biostudies-literature

Changes in the perceived size of the body following exposure to distorted self-body images.

Project description:Inaccurate perceptions, such as under- or over-estimation of body size are often found in clinical eating disorder populations but have recently been shown also in healthy people. However, it is not yet clear how body size perception may be affected when the internal body representation is manipulated. In this study, visual adaptation was used to investigate whether exposure to distorted visual feedback alters the representation of body size and how long any such effects might last. Participants were exposed for five minutes to a distorted life-size image of themselves that was either 20% wider or 20% narrower than their normal size. Accuracy was measured using our novel psychophysical method that taps into the implicit body representation. The accuracy of the representation was assessed at 6, 12 and 18 min following exposure to adaptation. Altered visual feedback caused changes in participants' judgements of their body size: adapting to a wider body resulted in size overestimation whereas underestimations occurred after adapting to a narrower body. These distortions lasted throughout testing and did not fully return back to normal within 18 min. The results are discussed in terms of the emerging literature indicating that the internal representation of the body is dynamic and flexible.

| S-EPMC9019518 | biostudies-literature

Thinking About One's Subjective Well-Being: Average Trends and Individual Differences.

Project description:In two studies, participants reported what they had been thinking about while completing measures of subjective well-being (SWB). These thought reports were analyzed with respect to life domain, valence, and how strongly they were related to actual levels of SWB. Most people focused on their life circumstances (e.g., career) rather than on dispositional predictors (e.g., personality) of SWB. The domains mentioned most frequently (career, family, romantic life) were also the ones that were most strongly related to actual SWB, indicating that most of people think about things that actually contribute to their SWB. Some domains are predominantly mentioned in positive contexts (e.g., family) whereas others are predominantly mentioned in negative contexts (e.g., money). On average, people thought more about positive than about negative things, a result that is magnified for respondents high in extraversion or emotional stability. In sum, these findings provide insight into what people think contributes to their SWB; beliefs that may guide them as they make important decisions.

| S-EPMC4201388 | biostudies-literature

Body size, extinction risk and knowledge bias in New World snakes.

Project description:Extinction risk and body size have been found to be related in various vertebrate groups, with larger species being more at risk than smaller ones. We checked whether this was also the case for snakes by investigating extinction risk-body size relationships in the New World's Colubroidea species. We used the IUCN Red List risk categories to assign each species to one of two broad levels of threat (Threatened and Non-Threatened) or to identify it as either Data Deficient or Not-Evaluated by the IUCN. We also included the year of description of each species in our analysis as this could affect the level of threat assigned to it (earlier described species had more time to gather information about them, which might have facilitated their evaluation). Also, species detectability could be a function of body size, with larger species tending to be described earlier, which could have an impact in extinction risk-body size relationships. We found a negative relationship between body size and description year, with large-bodied species being described earlier. Description year also varied among risk categories, with Non-Threatened species being described earlier than Threatened species and both species groups earlier than Data Deficient species. On average, Data Deficient species also presented smaller body sizes, while no size differences were detected between Threatened and Non-Threatened species. So it seems that smaller body sizes are related with species detectability, thus potentially affecting both when a species is described (smaller species tend to be described more recently) as well as the amount of information gathered about it (Data Deficient species tend to be smaller). Our data also indicated that if Data Deficient species were to be categorized as Threatened in the future, snake body size and extinction risk would be negatively related, contrasting with the opposite pattern commonly observed in other vertebrate groups.

| S-EPMC4237443 | biostudies-literature

BMP Signaling Determines Body Size via Transcriptional Regulation of Collagen Genes in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Project description:Body size is a tightly regulated phenotype in metazoans that depends on both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. While signaling pathways are known to control organ and body size, the downstream effectors that mediate their effects remain poorly understood. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP)-related signaling pathway is the major regulator of growth and body size. We investigated the transcriptional network through which the BMP pathway regulates body size and identified cuticle collagen genes as major effectors of growth control. We demonstrate that cuticle collagens can act as positive regulators (col-41), negative regulators (col-141), or dose-sensitive regulators (rol-6) of body size. Moreover, we find a requirement of BMP signaling for stage-specific expression of cuticle collagen genes. We show that the Smad signal transducers directly bind conserved Smad-binding elements in regulatory regions of col-141 and col-142, but not of col-41 Hence, cuticle collagen genes may be directly and indirectly regulated via the BMP pathway. Our work thus connects a conserved signaling pathway with its critical downstream effectors, advancing insight into how body size is specified. Since collagen mutations and misregulation are implicated in numerous human genetic disorders and injury sequelae, understanding how collagen gene expression is regulated has broad implications.

| S-EPMC6283163 | biostudies-literature

Leukocyte gene expression variation as a function of perceived family stress and psychological well-being

Project description:Individual differences in basal leukocyte gene expression profiles as a function of child's and parent's perception of family stress, and as a function of parent's psychological well-being.

2015-03-28 | GSE45329 | GEO

Altering One's Body-Perception Through E-Textiles and Haptic Metaphors.

Project description:Technologies change rapidly our perception of reality, moving from augmented to virtual to magical. While e-textiles are a key component in exergame or space suits, the transformative potential of the internal side of garments to create embodied experiences still remains largely unexplored. This paper is the result from an art-science collaborative project that combines recent neuroscience findings, body-centered design principles and 2D vibrotactile array-based fabrics to alter one's body perception. We describe an iterative design process intertwined with two user studies on the effects on body-perceptions and emotional responses of various vibration patterns within textile that were designed as spatial haptic metaphors. Our results show potential in considering materials (e.g., rocks) as sensations to design for body perceptions (e.g., being heavy, strong) and emotional responses. We discuss these results in terms of sensory effects on body perception and synergetic impact to research on embodiment in virtual environments, human-computer interaction, and e-textile design. The work brings a new perspective to the sensorial design of embodied experiences which is based on "material perception" and haptic metaphors, and highlights potential opportunities opened by haptic clothing to change body-perception.

| S-EPMC7805743 | biostudies-literature

Being Perceived and Being "Seen": Interpersonal Affordances, Agency, and Selfhood.

Project description:Are interpersonal affordances a distinct type of affordance, and if so, what is it that differentiates them from other kinds of affordances? In this paper, I show that a hard distinction between interpersonal affordances and other affordances is warranted and ethically important. The enactivist theory of participatory sense-making demonstrates that there is a difference in coupling between agent-environment and agent-agent interactions, and these differences in coupling provide a basis for distinguishing between the perception of environmental and interpersonal affordances. Building further on this foundation for understanding interpersonal affordances, I argue that in line with some enactivist work on social cognition, interpersonal affordances ought to be considered as those that are afforded by agents and are recognized as such. Given this distinction, I also make the point that because our social conventions establish persons as more than mere agents, the direct perception of interpersonal affordances may also involve seeing others as embodied selves. Distinguishing between types of affordances thus also matters ethically: there can be harms done when an agent is not perceived as an agent, and there can be harms done when an agent is not perceived as a self.

| S-EPMC7406706 | biostudies-literature

Perceived match between own and observed models' bodies: influence of face, viewpoints, and body size.

Project description:People are generally unable to accurately determine their own body measurements and to translate this knowledge to identifying a model/avatar that best represents their own body. This inability has not only been related to health problems (e.g. anorexia nervosa), but has important practical implications as well (e.g. online retail). Here we aimed to investigate the influence of three basic visual features-face presence, amount of viewpoints, and observed model size-on the perceived match between own and observed models' bodies and on attitudes towards these models. Models were real-life models (Experiment 1) or avatar models based on participants' own bodies (Experiment 2). Results in both experiments showed a strong effect of model size, irrespective of participants' own body measurements. When models were randomly presented one by one, participants gave significantly higher ratings to smaller- compared to bigger-sized models. The reverse was true, however, when participants observed and compared models freely, suggesting that the mode of presentation affected participants' judgments. Limited evidence was found for an effect of facial presence or amount of viewpoints. These results add evidence to research on visual features affecting the ability to match observed bodies with own body image, which has biological, clinical, and practical implications.

| S-EPMC7438501 | biostudies-literature

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

OmicsDI is an Elixir interoperability service. Learn more ›

Tweets

OmicsDI Databases

PRIDE
PeptideAtlas
MassIVE
JPOST Repository
Physiome Model Repository

EGA
EVA
ENA
LINCS
PAXDB
Cell Collective

MetaboLights
Metabolomics Workbench
MetabolomeExpress
GNPS
BioModels
FAIRDOMHub

ArrayExpress
dbGaP
ExpressionAtlas
GEO
NODE

Information

Databases
Help
API
Contact us
Code on GitHub
Terms of use
Submit Data