Understanding How Body Awareness Affects Obesity in Right-Handed Women Observational Study on Interoception and Body Representation

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are exploring how the bodys ability to sense internal signals interoception and combine them with external information affects obesity and related eating behaviors. This study focuses on understanding the links between interoceptive signals, body mass index BMI, and reactions to external food cues in women with obesity. The goal is to clarify how these internal and external processes relate to cognitive, emotional, and health aspects in obesity. The study involves two groups of right-handed women aged 18 to 55 those diagnosed with obesity undergoing rehabilitation treatment and healthy controls without eating disorders. Participants perform a combined sensory task where they respond to visual food and non-food stimuli on a computer screen while simultaneously monitoring their heartbeat through headphones. Reaction times, accuracy in visual detection, and judgments about heartbeat timing are recorded to assess interoceptive and visual processing. During the study, participants are evaluated through these dual tasks measuring visual detection speed and accuracy along with interoceptive judgment. The study collects data at the time of testing to understand how sensory processing relates to obesity. This observational study is sponsored by Istituto Auxologico Italiano and includes healthy volunteers, with total participation lasting for the duration of the single testing session.

SENSing Inner BodiLy State: Understanding the Role of Interoception in obEsity