Research shows that people with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) may have differences in visual processing that change how they pay attention to things (like focusing on small details) and how they see and understand the world around them (like recognizing faces and bodies). People with BDD often overfocus on specific details and see flaws in their appearances, as well as struggling with seeing the “big picture”.

This project will explore how people with BDD process visual information through studying both attention (top-down processing) and distorted perception (bottom-up processing) by measuring responses in brain regions associated with BDD.