But Coslett thinks self-talk probably does shape the physiology of perception, given that other sensory perceptions - the intensity of pain, for example, or whether a certain taste is pleasing or foul, or even what we see - can be strongly influenced by opinions, assumptions, cultural biases and blind spots. So far, evidence that the words you say to yourself could change the way you see yourself is still limited to the self-reports of patients and the effect on brain physiology hasn't yet been studied. By understanding exactly how this misperception works, he hopes to gain insight into how to bring closer to reality the mental body image of someone struggling with anorexia or bulimia - or just a poor self-image. What Coslett wants to understand - and he's just starting to study this now - is how people with eating disorders get their mental image of their body so wrong, adding inches to their thighs, butts and bellies. And imagining a movement over and over can have the same effect on our brains as practicing it physically - as well as lead to similar improvements in performance. Research on what neurologists call motor imagery indicates that the same neurological networks are used both to imagine movement, and to actually move. Studies show that this internal sense of oneself is a powerful thing. ![]() We need that very specific sense of ourselves to understand how much space we take up - so we can walk and not bump into things, or perform simple tasks, like reaching out a hand and picking up a coffee cup. It's clear that we all have an internal representation of our own bodies, Coslett says. Neuroscientists are still trying to understand exactly how this works. Their mental self was wearing the hat, even if their physical self wasn't - just as anorexic women in the Netherlands study saw themselves carrying a bigger body.
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