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Female-to-Male Transsexual Individuals Demonstrate Different Own Body Identification

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Abstract

Transsexualism is characterized by feelings of incongruity between one’s natal sex and one’s gender identity. It is unclear whether transsexual individuals have a body image that is more congruent with their gender identity than their sex assigned at birth (natal sex) and, if so, whether there are contributions from perceptual dysfunctions. We compared 16 pre-hormone treatment female-to-male transsexual (FtM) individuals to 20 heterosexual female and 20 heterosexual male controls on a visual identification task. Participants viewed photographs of their own body that were morphed by different degrees to bodies of other females or males, and were instructed to rate “To what degree is this picture you?” We also tested global vs. local visual processing using the inverted faces task. FtM differed from both control groups in demonstrating higher self-identification ratings for bodies morphed to the sex congruent with their gender identity, and across a broad range of morph percentages. This difference was more pronounced for longer viewing durations. FtM showed reduced accuracy for upright faces compared with female controls for short duration stimuli, but no advantage for inverted faces. These results suggest different own body identification in FtM, consisting of a relatively diffuse identification with body images congruent with their gender identity. This is more likely accounted for by conscious, cognitive factors than perceptual differences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, 300 UCLA Medical Plaza, Suite 2200, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-8346, USA

    Jamie D. Feusner

  2. Department of Women’s and Children’s Health and Neurology Clinic, Karolinska Institute and University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    Jasenko Dervisic & Ivanka Savic

  3. Gender Team, Psychiatry Southwest, Center for Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge, Stockholm County Council, Solna, Sweden

    Kyriaki Kosidou

  4. Gender Team, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Center for Andrology and Sexual Medicine and Centre for Psychiatry Research, Karolinska Institute and University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    Cecilia Dhejne

  5. Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Susan Bookheimer

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  1. Jamie D. Feusner
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  2. Jasenko Dervisic
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  3. Kyriaki Kosidou
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  4. Cecilia Dhejne
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  5. Susan Bookheimer
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  6. Ivanka Savic
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Correspondence to Jamie D. Feusner.

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Feusner, J.D., Dervisic, J., Kosidou, K. et al. Female-to-Male Transsexual Individuals Demonstrate Different Own Body Identification. Arch Sex Behav 45, 525–536 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0596-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0596-z

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