Body-dissatisfied in which body? Embodiment and selective visual attention in body-mass modified self-avatars

Human agents immersed in metaverse technologies such as virtual reality (VR) are routinely disconnected from their actual physical appearance and embodied in another virtual body, referred to as self-avatar. Such body transformations can have implications for patients with eating disorders, or persons with extreme body dissatisfaction (BD). Changes in BD, weight anxiety, or body image are theoretically linked to visual selective attention, which can be measured with eye-tracking. In the present study, 43 women with high or low BD were immersed in animated body-weight manipulated self-avatars in VR. Prior to a brief mirror exposure with their self-avatars, they experienced synchronous visuo-motor and visuo-tactile contingencies in VR to increase embodiment, delivered through small movement exercises with real-time animation from first-person-perspective and passive haptics. In a cross-over study design, self-avatar weight was manipulated (normal weight vs. overweight) in both groups (low BD vs. high BD) and subjective experience was assessed before and after exposure. In contrast to our hypotheses, BD was not affected by the self-avatar condition. Embodiment decreased during mirror exposure. Interestingly, disembodiment was stronger in women with low BD. Further, eye-tracking showed that participants with high BD looked longer at weight-related body-parts when immersed in the overweight self-avatar, whereas participants with low BD looked longer at weight-related body-parts when immersed in the normal-weight self-avatar. Overall, results support body-specific visual attention and suggest a paradoxical disembodiment rejection of self-avatars during mirror exposure supported by selective gaze patterns, possibly alleviating momentary body experience.