Eye Movements and Body Images

The eye-movement patterns of nine hospitalized psychiatric patients were compared with those of ten non-patients when looking at pictures of themselves and others. There were highly significant differences between both the mean fixation times of the two groups and also between the area of the body to which they paid the most attention. The mean fixation times of all the non-patients grouped closely around 0.61 seconds whereas the patients varied between 0.12 seconds and 0.47 seconds and 0.72 seconds and 1.04 seconds. Non-patients looked at all body levels, but spent much more time looking at the face. Patients on the other hand paid much more visual attention to the body and tended to avoid the face. It is suggested that the variability in the fixation times and the tendency to avoid the face reflects a mechanism in the patient which is tending to avoid receiving information about certain aspects of the external world.