“I’m Not Hungry:” Bodily Representations and Bodily Experiences in Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a psychiatric illness that presents a complex variety of perceptual alterations and somatic sensations. These alterations occur at the level of (1) bodily representations and (2) bodily experiences. The alterations are wide- spread, and they involve multiple cognitive functions. We reviewed the current lit- erature linking the psychiatric literature on AN with the philosophical debate on the Cognitive Penetrability of Perception (CPP). We describe the alterations in percep- tion, starting from the most widespread and studied, i.e., those concerning distor- tions in the estimation of the dimensions of one’s body (“dysmorphophobia” or “body image disturbance”) to then describe those of more recent analysis involving alterations in bodily experiences. Body image disturbances in AN have been linked to alexithymia, emotional dysregulation, and altered interoceptive awareness, high- lighting the complex interaction between emotion, cognition, and perception in AN. We show how the recent debate on CPP can benefit from the empirical investiga- tions in AN, and can, in turn, serve to outline new lines of research.