The development of body representations: an associative learning account.

ABSTRACT: Representing one's own body is of fundamental importance to interact with our environment, yet little is known about how body representations develop. One account suggests that the ability to represent one's own body is present from birth and supports infants' ability to detect similarities between their own and others' bodies. However, in recent years evidence has been accumulating for alternative accounts that emphasize the role of multisensory experience obtained through acting and interacting with our own body in the development of body representations. Here, we review this evidence, and propose an integrative account that suggests that through experience, infants form multisensory associations that facilitate the development of body representations. This associative account provides a

SUBMITTER: de Klerk CCJM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8079995 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature