ABSTRACT
Since Bonnier, the term ‘body schema has’ referred to the brain circuitry that must be activated for our movements and gestures to automatically adapt to our position in space. This circuitry is built up throughout our childhood. Neither its development nor its activity are conscious. Our representation of space is linked to that of our body schema, but unlike body schema, space representation has to be learnt and put in words. Visuospatial neglect may alter both body schema and space representation. It may be accompanied by certain psychic productions (somatoparaphrenia and anosognosia). A variety of links between body schema and psychic disorders has been described in schizophrenia and child dyspraxia.
