Schone, HR;
Maimon Mor, RO;
Baker, CI;
Makin, TR;
(2021)
Expert tool users show increased differentiation between visual representations of hands and tools.
The Journal of Neuroscience
10.1523/jneurosci.2489-20.2020.
(In press).
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Abstract
The idea that when we use a tool we incorporate it into the neural representation of our body (embodiment) has been a major inspiration for philosophy, science and engineering. While theoretically appealing, there is little direct evidence for tool embodiment at the neural level. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in male and female human subjects, we investigated whether expert tool users (London litter pickers: n=7) represent their expert tool more like a hand (neural embodiment) or less like a hand (neural differentiation), as compared to a group of tool novices (n=12). During fMRI scans, participants viewed first-person videos depicting grasps performed by either a hand, litter picker or a non-expert grasping tool. Using representational similarity analysis, differences in the representational structure of hands and tools were measured within occipitotemporal (OTC). Contrary to the neural embodiment theory, we find that the experts group represent their own tool less like a hand (not more) relative to novices. Using a case-study approach, we further replicated this effect, independently, in 5 of the 7 individual expert litter pickers, as compared to the novices. An exploratory analysis in left parietal cortex, a region implicated in visuomotor representations of hands and tools, also indicated that experts do not visually represent their tool more similar to hands, compared to novices. Together, our findings suggest that extensive tool use leads to an increased neural differentiation between visual representations of hands and tools. This evidence provides an important alternative framework to the prominent tool embodiment theory.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Expert tool users show increased differentiation between visual representations of hands and tools |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1523/jneurosci.2489-20.2020 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.2489-20.2020 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10121900 |
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