Author(s)

Maria do Rosário Dias¹, José Grillo Evangelista¹, Letícia Naben¹, Isabel Ritto², Ana Ferreira¹

¹CIMPS-EM-Campus Universitário, Quinta da Granja, Monte de Caparica, Caparica, Portugal.
²CIEBA-Faculdade de Belas-Artes, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.

Background: The concepts of the Young Person and of an Elderly Person go through an evolutionary diversification during the Human lifecycle and are permeable to diverse biopsychosocial factors involved in the definition of the lifecycle stages. Therefore, assessing this subjectivity in different stages of development and population fringes may be a determinant key factor to assist the implementation of successful disease prevention and health promotion strategies. Aim: The aim of the present study was to discern how Fine Arts’ college students of the Anatomy class mentally represent the inner morphology of the human body of the Young Person and of an Elderly Person. Method: For such, 126 students were asked to draw the interior of the body of a Young Person and of an Elderly Person. In all, 252 drawings were collected and analysed, based on a coding data grid designed for this purpose. Hence, a comparative analysis of these two different vital lifecycle phases was achieved. Results: The results suggest anatomical differences in the pictorial representation of the Young Person and of the Elderly Person, namely in the accentuation of the curvatures of the vertebral column, retrusion of the lower jaw and muscle flaccidity. Conclusions: Although the body schema was the same for all individuals, the body image was singularly depicted and linked to each individual’s history, representing a synthesis of his idiosyncratic perceptions, experiences and particularities.

Mental Representation, Human Inner Body, Young Person, Elderly Person, Drawings

Dias, M. , Evangelista, J. , Naben, L. , Ritto, I. and Ferreira, A. (2019) X-Ray Vision: The Mental Genealogy of the Anatomy of the Interior of the Human Body. Journal of Biosciences and Medicines, 7, 68-76. doi: 10.4236/jbm.2019.78005.