3. Catherine Preston: Bodily illusions, eating disorders, and pregnancy

Catherine Preston is a cognitive neuroscientist, studying body perception and self-awareness. Catherine and I first met in Stockholm in 2014 when I was doing an internship in Henrik Ehrsson's lab. Catherine was my day-to-day supervisor, and our project investigated full-body illusions viewed in a mirror. Catherine has since moved to York, where she works as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor).

In this conversation, we talk about Catherine's recent research on bodily illusions, including applications to eating disorders and pregnancy. We also talk more broadly about her experiences of starting her own lab and work as a new faculty member.
 
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. New long-form conversations every other Friday. You can find the podcast on all major podcasting platforms (e.g., Apple/Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc.) and on YouTube.
 
Timestamps
0:00:05 How Catherine got into studying body perception
0:03:55 Rubber hands, monkey hands, and invisible hands
0:16:12 Catherine's postdoc with Henrik Ehrsson
0:20:33 Eating disorders, body satisfaction, and bodily illusions
0:41:09 Pregnancy and bodily illusions
1:10:13 Starting a lab and teaching (at York University)
1:22:57 Mentorship and learning as a faculty member
1:35:12 Who Catherine would like to work with (BSc, MSc & PhD students, postdocs)

 Links
 Podcast links

• Website: https://bjks.buzzsprout.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BjksPodcast

Catherine's links

• York profile: www.york.ac.uk/psychology/staff/academicstaff/cp1039/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=vwu2AvgAAAAJ
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cejpreston

Ben's links

• Website: www.bjks.blog/
• Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=-nWNfvcAAAAJ

 General info
 - Rubber hand illusion
 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DphlhmtGRqI
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multisensory_integration#Rubber_hand_illusion
- Full-body illusion
Video (about the body swap illusion): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rawY2VzN4-c
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_transfer_illusion

 References
Byrne, A., & Preston, C. (2019). Mr Fantastic Meets The Invisible Man: An Illusion of Invisible Finger Stretching. Perception
Kirk, E., & Preston, C. (2019). Development and validation of the Body Understanding Measure for Pregnancy Scale (BUMPS) and its role in antenatal attachment. Psychological Assessment
Preston, C., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2016). Illusory obesity triggers body dissatisfaction responses in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex.
Preston, C., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2018). Implicit and explicit changes in body satisfaction evoked by body size illusions: Implications for eating disorder vulnerability in women. PloS One
Preston, C., Kuper-Smith, B. J., & Ehrsson, H. H. (2015). Owning the body in the mirror: The effect of visual perspective and mirror view on the full-body illusion. Scientific Reports