What is the body schema?

Abstract

The body schema is commonly defined as the representation of a body for action. But what do we mean exactly by that? What makes the body schema so special? The type of information that it represents? The way this information is represented? Or the function of the representation? And is there more than one type of body schema? There is a sense indeed in which the term ‘body schema’ is ambiguous, in that it functions as a general term that groups together various body representations intervening at different stages in motor control, representing short- or long-term properties, used for positive or negative affordances. In addition, one might want to distinguish between local body schemata, which represent body parts, and a global body schema, which represents the body as a whole. But is this latter holistic representation really necessary? Here this chapter will present a detailed characterization of the manifold of representational processes involved in what we commonly refer to as the body schema, as well as the key mechanisms that contribute to their construal.