Apr. 13, 2012 According to researchers from the University of
Hertfordshire, individuals with the mental health problem Body
Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) cannot accurately detect negative
facial emotions but they have an amazing ability to recognise
famous faces - when they are upside-down. Upside-down faces are
difficult for most people to identify because we are used to
processing them as a whole, and the right way up. Individuals
with BDD, however, process the faces in a different way because
they overly-focus on the individual facial features. Professor
Keith Laws, Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychology at the
University said: “People with Body Dysmorphic Disorder have an
obsession relating to their body image, where they believe that
they have a defect in their appearance. Often they are
attractive individuals who focus negatively on specific features
of their own body, especially their face. Indeed, up to 15% of
people who seek cosmetic surgery meet the criteria for a BDD
diagnosis.” The researchers found