Altered abdominal spatial mapping despite preserved tactile acuity in adolescents with Restrictive Eating Disorders

Disturbances in body perception are a consistent feature of Restrictive Eating Disorders (REDs). In adult patients diagnosed with REDs, body dissatisfaction and overestimation of body weight have been associated with altered tactile acuity and biases in proprioceptive localization. Whether similar alterations are present in adolescents-when the disorder often emerges-remains unclear. This study aimed to characterize possible alterations in tactile and body perception in adolescents diagnosed with REDs. Patients (N = 48) and age-matched healthy controls (HCs, N = 45) completed tasks measuring tactile acuity and body landmark localization accuracy on the hand and abdomen. Body dissatisfaction was also measured with clinical questionnaires. The REDs group showed greater bias in abdomen perception, whereas hand perception was similar to that of HCs. No differences in tactile processing emerged between REDs and HCs. The relations between perceptual biases, tactile acuity, and self-reported body dissatisfaction were not statistically significant. Our results suggest that biases in body perception in REDs are present in adolescence, but limited to specific body parts, such as the abdomen.