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Body, Brain, and Behavior: The Neuroanthropology of the Body Image
Author(s) -
Laughlin Charles D.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
anthropology of consciousness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1556-3537
pISSN - 1053-4202
DOI - 10.1525/ac.1997.8.2-3.49
Subject(s) - neurocognitive , perception , human body , psychology , cognitive psychology , distortion (music) , neurophysiology , image (mathematics) , body schema , cognitive science , sensory system , body shape , variance (accounting) , cognition , developmental psychology , neuroscience , computer vision , computer science , artificial intelligence , amplifier , computer network , business , accounting , bandwidth (computing)
The author presents a biogenetic structural theory of the body image in human beings. The theory accounts for both the universal principles and the variance in body image cross‐culturally. All humans develop a neurocognitive model of their body which combines information about the body obtained via both the internal and external sensory systems. Their experience of themselves is mediated in part by this model. The initial model of the body is "hard‐wired" and already present and active in the cognitively and perceptually competent pre‐ and perinatal human being, and develops as a consequence of both genetically imposed and socioculturally influenced processes of growth. The role of behavior in this process is shown to be the control of perception such that the body image experienced in perception approximates that anticipated by the cognized self. The theory accounts for the use of the body‐assymbol and the distortion of the body image for communicative purposes. The neurophysiology of imagery is reviewed and suggestions are made for possible clinical methods that might be used to effect therapeutic changes in pathological body imagery.