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Grab an object with a tool and change your body: tool-use-dependent changes of body representation for action

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Abstract

Along the evolutionary history, humans have reached a high level of sophistication in the way they interact with the environment. One important step in this process has been the introduction of tools, enabling humans to go beyond the boundaries of their physical possibilities. Here, we focus on some “low level” aspects of sensorimotor processing that highlight how tool-use plays a causal role in shaping body representations, an essential plastic feature for efficient motor control during development and skilful tool-use in the adult life. We assess the evidence supporting the hypothesis that tools are incorporated in body representation for action, which is the body schema, by critically reviewing some previous findings and providing new data from on-going work in our laboratory. In particular, we discuss several experiments that reveal the effects of tool-use both on the kinematics of hand movements and the localization of somatosensory stimuli on the body surface, as well as the conditions that are necessary for these effects to be manifested. We suggest that overall these findings speak in favour of genuine tool-use-dependent plasticity of the body representation for the control of action.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by INSERM, the AVENIR grant No. R05265CS, the ANR grant No. RPV08085CSA, the James S. McDonnell Scholar Award and the Fédération des Aveugles et Handicapés Visuels de France.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, ImpAct Team, 69000, Lyon, France

    Lucilla Cardinali, Stéphane Jacobs & Alessandro Farnè

  2. University Lyon 1, 69000, Lyon, France

    Lucilla Cardinali, Stéphane Jacobs, Alice C. Roy & Alessandro Farnè

  3. Hospices Civils de Lyon, Hôpital Neurologique, Mouvementet Handicap, Lyon, France

    Lucilla Cardinali, Stéphane Jacobs & Alessandro Farnè

  4. Department of Neuroscience, Brain, Body and Self Lab, Karolinska Institutet, 17177, Stockholm, Sweden

    Claudio Brozzoli

  5. Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Francesca Frassinetti

  6. Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri, Clinica del Lavoro e della Riabilitazione, IRCCS, Istituto Scientifico di Castel Goffredo, 46042, Mantua, Italy

    Francesca Frassinetti

  7. CNRS FRE 3406, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, L2C2, 69500, Bron, France

    Alice C. Roy

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  1. Lucilla Cardinali
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  2. Stéphane Jacobs
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  3. Claudio Brozzoli
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  4. Francesca Frassinetti
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  5. Alice C. Roy
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  6. Alessandro Farnè
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Correspondence to Lucilla Cardinali.

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Cardinali, L., Jacobs, S., Brozzoli, C. et al. Grab an object with a tool and change your body: tool-use-dependent changes of body representation for action. Exp Brain Res 218, 259–271 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-012-3028-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-012-3028-5

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