Fig. 1: fMRI task paradigm.
From: Neural and behavioral effects of modification of visual attention in body dysmorphic disorder

Four color photos of participants’ own faces at different, standardized angles were captured before the MRI session. A blocked design was used for the presentation of participant’s own face and scrambled face control stimuli for both (a) natural viewing and (b) visual modulation runs. The first 4 images were participant’s faces at different angles, and the next four images were scrambled faces. Each image was presented for 3.6 s, with a brief gap of 0.7~0.8 s for changing the image. A fixation with duration of 12.2 s was shown after the stimuli. The presentation of participant’s face and scrambled face stimuli was repeated six times in a single run. The stimuli for the visual modulation run (b) had a semi-transparent crosshair between the eyes of the participants’ faces and in the center of the scrambled faces. For the visual modulation run, participants were required to maintain their gaze on the crosshair. The rationale was that fixating visual gaze on the crosshair would reduce scanning associated with piecemeal/detailed processing, and enhance holistic/global visual processing. To ensure task compliance for viewing the photos and crosshairs, gaze location was continuously monitored with the camera by the experimenters during the scan. Informed consent was obtained for publication of the image for the volunteer in the figure.