Presents a comprehensive overview of the progress made in understanding the human body and its relationship to perception. This volume helps to unify the relevant research from independent areas of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and facilitate the development of an integrated framework for the study of human-body perception.

As the general notion of cognition has recently broadened to include its embodied nature, researchers' accounts of perception have increasingly come to include the body's special status as a window on the world and to accommodate the specific perceptual requirements for identifying, interpreting, and interacting with other bodies. This volume presents a comprehensive overview of the rapid progress that has been made in understanding the human body and its relationship to perception. It will help to unify the relevant research from several independent areas of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience and facilitate the development of an integrated framework for the study of human-body perception.

Of all our everyday activities, surely none can be more important than knowing about people, ourselves included. Indeed, this is why the nascent field of social neuroscience is burgeoning, and it's why this book is important and timely. By integrating multiple research perspectives on body perception, these chapters--contributed by leaders in the field--provide a comprehensive overview of work on the cognitive and neuronal bases of human body perception, including self-awareness. Anyone already in the field will greatly appreciate the synthesis, and those just discovering the field will become hooked when they read this book.