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Developing body representations in early life: combining somatosensation and vision to perceive the interface between the body and the world
Author(s) -
Bremner Andrew J
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
developmental medicine and child neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.658
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1469-8749
pISSN - 0012-1622
DOI - 10.1111/dmcn.13041
Subject(s) - somatosensory system , psychology , sensory system , proprioception , cognitive psychology , interface (matter) , body schema , communication , perception , computer science , neuroscience , bubble , maximum bubble pressure method , parallel computing
This article lays out the computational challenges involved in constructing multisensory representations of the body and the interface between the body and the external world. It then provides a review of the most pertinent empirical literature regarding the ontogeny of such representational abilities in early life, focussing especially on ability to make spatiotemporal links between bodily events transduced by vision and somatosensation (cutaneous touch and proprioception), and the ability to use multisensory bodily cues to locate tactile stimuli. Findings from infants, children, and blind adults point towards a trajectory of development in early life in which infants and children, as a result of sensory experience, learn new ways of combining cues concerning the body arising from vision and somatosensation, in order to best represent the layout of their limbs and sensory events occurring on their limbs in relation to the external environment.