A Brief Overview of The Development of Body Representations Across Infancy, Childhood and Adulthood

Abstract

For centuries, philosophers have pondered over how bodies are represented as unitary entities and contemporary research is beginning to elucidate the answer. This paper will argue that different aspects of body representation develop at different rates across infancy and childhood, with body representation maturing to adult-like states by early adolescence. Firstly, the role of somatosensory cues will be outlined, before highlighting the influence of multisensory temporal and spatial congruity in body representation.

Keywords

• body representations
• infancy
• childhood
• adulthood.