1-015 - New Directions in the Study of Body Representations in Early Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

This symposium focuses on the development of body representations in the early months and years of life. Key questions in this area concern how different representations of the body develop and how they are connected across the perceptual, cognitive, and social domains. The presentations take different but complementary perspectives on these questions, beginning with the perception of one’s own body as studied using behavioral and neuroscientific measures. The way in which the bodies of others are perceived is then considered, with presentations again involving behavioral measures and neuroscience methods. The first presentation focuses on the way infants build up functional maps of their own body, as indexed by developments in the ability to localize tactile stimulation across different bodily locations. The second talk follows up this theme of body maps by describing new data from an EEG study of 2-month-old infants, examining somatotopic neural responses to tactile stimulation of hands, feet, and lips. Turning to the perception of the bodies of others, the third presentation will discuss data from an ongoing series of studies examining infants’ perception of the human form, with a focus on how infants can register socially significant information in bodies. The final talk continues this theme by presenting infant EEG data from a study examining the interaction between vision of the bodies of others and the perception and processing of tactile stimulation on one’s own body. Through highlighting work across multiple perspectives, the symposium aims to stimulate further integrative work on developing body representations.

Sub Unit

• Perceptual, Sensory, Motor

Chair

• Peter Marshall, Department of Psychology, Temple University.

Individual Presentations

• Functional Maps of the Body - Presenting Author: Jeffrey Lockman, Tulane University

• Examining Somatotopic Body Representations in 8-week-old Infants Using EEG - Presenting Author: Joni N. Saby, University of Washington

• The Development of Structural and Functional Knowledge about Bodies in Infancy - Presenting Author: Ramesh S. Bhatt, University of Kentucky; Alyson J. Hock, University of Kentucky; Hannah White, University of Kentucky; Rachel Jubran, University of Kentucky; Alison Heck, University of Kentucky

• Interpersonal Influences on Body Representations in the Infant Brain - Presenting Author: Ashley R. Drew, Temple University; Andrew N. Meltzoff, University of Washington; Peter Marshall, Department of Psychology, Temple University.