Less than a pretty face: Brain scans show how a disorder leads individuals to perceive themselves as ugly.

Despite living in a culture obsessed with physical flawlessness, most people in the U.S. have a relatively realistic perception of their own form and face-blemishes, bulges and all. About one to two percent of the population, however, suffers from a recognized psychological illness, known as body dysmorphic disorder （or BDD）, which causes them to be preoccupied with physical defects that they think make them look repugnant. Such tendencies can lead some people to extreme and frequent plastic surgeries and even suicide.

A new study used brain scans to see how patients' minds worked when looking at faces-both of others and themselves. The results, published online February 1 in Archives of General Psychiatry, show that people with BDD seem to get hung up on details and hint at a link with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The new case-control study used functional magnetic-resonance imaging （fMRI） to study brain activity among 33 people （17 control subjects and 16 with BDD） as the subjects looked at photos of their face and that of a familiar celebrity. Previous research and clinical observation had found that people with BDD tend to "focus primarily on details of their appearance at the expense of global or configural aspects," the researchers wrote.

So following this lead, the researchers （led by Jamie Feusner, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles） showed subjects standard photos as well as altered versions: one in which only the details remained and another in which only basic, blurred information remained.

Although the study was small, the researchers found a distinct difference between how the brains of the people with BDD and the control individuals reacted upon seeing the images. Analysis of the scans showed that "individuals with BDD have abnormal brain activation patterns when viewing their own face, showing hyperactivity in primary and secondary visual processing regions for [blurred] faces and hyperactivity in frontostriatal systems for [normal] faces," noted the researchers. This tendency to focus in on the details at the expense of an "ability to contextualize them configurally or holistically" might be at the root of the disorder and "suggests aberrant activity patterns for faces in general," the researchers wrote.

The severity of these effects appeared to correlate with the level of BBD symptoms in people who had the disorder.

These cognitive patterns, the scientists report, represent "preliminary evidence of a possible similarity in functional neuroanatomy between BDD and obsessive-compulsive disorder."

脸蛋不够漂亮： 脑部扫描发现了导致人们认为自己很丑的一种疾病。

虽然我们生活在一个对身体和容貌苛求完美的文化环境里面，但是大多数美国人对他们自己的形态和面容还是有一个相对现实的认识-他们接受自己的雀斑、身体上某些部位比较肥胖等缺点。不过，有大约1-2%的人罹患一种称为躯体变形障碍（body dysmorphic disorder,简称BDD）的心理疾病，这种疾病让患者对自己的身体缺点忧心忡忡，他们认为这些缺点让他们看起来十分讨厌。这种倾向能导致一些人做极端而且频繁的美容手术，甚至导致一些人自杀。

一项新的研究使用脑部扫描技术来观察患者的内心在看人脸时候是如何反应的？,患者们既看自己的脸，也看别人的脸。这项研究结果在线发表在2月1日的《普通精神病学文献》（Archives of General Psychiatry）杂志上，该研究显示患有BDD疾病的人看起来非常关注细节，而且可能患有强迫症。

这项新的病例对照研究使用功能核磁共振成像技术（functional magnetic-resonance imaging,简称fMRI）研究人们在看他们自己的以及大众明星的面部图片的时候的脑部活动情况。有33人参与了这项研究，其中17人作为对照，另外16人患有BDD.以前的研究和临床观察发现，患有BDD的人容易"把主要精力集中在他们面容的细节上，而忽视了整体因素。"

因此就有了接下来的研究，研究者们（由来自加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶分校大卫格芬医学院的 Jamie Feusner领导）给被试看一些标准的照片和一些修改过的照片，在这些修改过的照片中，一些照片仅仅只留下细节，而另外一些照片只留下一些基本的、模糊的信息。

虽然这项研究规模很小，但是研究者们发现，患有BDD的人和控制组的人在看这些面部图片的时候，他们大脑的反应有显着的差异。对这些脑部扫描进行分析后，研究者们发现"患有BDD的人在观看他们自己面部的时候，他们的大脑活动显示异常活跃，当他们观看[模糊]面部图像的时候，他们的一级和二级视觉加工区域表现非常活跃，而当他们观看[正常]面部图像的时候，他们的额纹状体系统非常活跃。"研究者们在论文中写到："这种只对细节的关注而不是把细节放到整体环境中来考虑的倾向可能是BDD的根源，这也大体上解释说明了在观看面部图片时大脑的反常活动模式"

这种影响的严重程度与患者的BDD症状的严重程度相关。

科学家们在研究报告中称，这些认知模式初步显示"在功能神经解剖学上，BDD和强迫症可能存在相似的地方。"

Vocabulary:

Perceive: 注意到；意识到；认为

Ugly: 丑陋的

Obsess: 使痴迷

Flawless: 完美的；无瑕的

Blemish: 斑点；疤痕

Bulge: （身体的）肥胖部位

Psychological: 心理的

Body Dysmorphic Disorder: 躯体变形障碍

Preoccupy: 使日夜思考；使忧心忡忡

Defect:缺点；缺陷

Repugnant:令人讨厌的

Plastic Surgery: 美容手术

Psychiatry: 精神病学

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: 强迫症

Celebrity: 名人

Clinical: 临床的

Configural: 格局的

Lead: 实例；范例；榜样

Blur: 模糊

Distinct: 显着的

Abnormal: 不正常的

Hyperactivity: 过度活跃

Frontostriatal system:额纹状体系统

Contextualize: 将…置于背景中考虑

Holistically: 整体地；全面地

Aberrant: 反常的；异常的；违反常规的

Severity: 严重性

Correlate: 相互关联

Cognitive: 认知的

Preliminary: 初步的；开始的

Neuroanatomy: 神经解剖学