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People with a disorder in which they are convinced they are ugly may have a brain glitch when processing things they see.
Research published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry this week sheds light on body dysmorphic disorder, marked by a dramatically distorted self-image and obsessive thoughts about imagined or minor defects in one's appearance.
One to 2 per cent of people around the world are thought to have this condition, also called BDD, according to Dr Jamie Feusner, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California's Los Angeles campus who led the research.
Some undergo repeated cosmetic surgery in futile attempts to fix the problems.
The cause of the disorder remains unknown, with experts suspecting thata variety of factors may contribute,ranging from genetics to upbringing.
People with BDD often think of themselves as ugly or disfigured and may obsess about physical traits or minor and imagined flaws even when assured by others they look fine. About a quarter of people with BDD attempt suicide.
Professor Feusner's team performed functional magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, brain scans on 12 people with the disorder as they viewed black-and-white images of other people's faces, and compared the results to those of people who do not have BDD.
They saw differences in how the right and left sides of the brain worked in people with BDD, but no actual structural differences in the brain.
"This is the first time where there's evidence that there is kind of a biological abnormality that may be contributing to the symptoms - the distorted body image - in body dysmorphic disorder," Dr Feusner said.
All were shown three pictures: a black-and-white photo of a face with a neutral expression, a black-and-white blurry image of a face, and a black-and-white image looking like a detailed line drawing of a face.
The brain scans showed that the people with BDD relied much more heavily on their brain's left side than the right side.
"The left side of the brain really is really specialised for doing more detailed and analytic process, whereas the right side of the brain processes more holistically and globally," Professor Feusner said.
People with BDD tend to fixate on their face and head, although other body parts can be involved.
The disorder tends to run in families and appears in both men and women. It is more common in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- Reuters
