Distorted Images of One’s Own Body Activates the Prefrontal Cortex and Limbic/Paralimbic System in Young Women: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

Background Our aim was to study the gender differences in brain activation upon viewing visual stimuli of distorted images of one’s own body. Methods We performed functional magnetic resonance imaging on 11 healthy young men and 11 healthy young women using the “body image tasks” which consisted of fat, real, and thin shapes of the subject’s own body. Results Comparison of the brain activation upon performing the fat-image task versus real-image task showed significant activation of the bilateral prefrontal cortex and left parahippocampal area including the amygdala in the women, and significant activation of the right occipital lobe including the primary and secondary visual cortices in the men. Comparison of brain activation upon performing the thin-image task versus real-image task showed significant activation of the left prefrontal cortex, left limbic area including the cingulate gyrus and paralimbic area including the insula in women, and significant activation of the occipital lobe including the left primary and secondary visual cortices in men. Conclusions These results suggest that women tend to perceive distorted images of their own bodies by complex cognitive processing of emotion, whereas men tend to perceive distorted images of their own bodies by object visual processing and spatial visual processing.