Listen to this PodcastMore 60-Second Science
[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
If all you have is a hammer, they say that everything looks like a nail. But when you use that hammer, it looks like your arm—to your brain, anyway. A report in the June 23rd issue of the journal Current Biology shows that the brain interprets tools as just an extension of your physical self.
To move our bodies around in space, the brain builds what’s called a “body schema,” a representation of all our various parts. And this so-called schema is frequently updated to keep up with our ever-changing bodies. Otherwise, you’d think you were still a bitty baby. Now scientists have taken this body-image overhaul a step further. They’ve shown that when we use a tool, even for a few minutes, the brain sees it as a temporary body part.
Subjects were asked to pick up a block. They then used a long, mechanical grabber to pick up the same block. Then they tried to snag the block barehanded again. And it took longer than their initial grab. That’s because they were briefly behaving like their arms were still augmented. So next time you feel like a total tool, you might just be hitting the nail on the head.
—Karen Hopkin
See what we're tweeting about
11 Comments
Add CommentNo wonder driving a car, riding a bike, and touch-typing on a keyboard become "second nature".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisno wonder we say "we can feel the road" when driving a car.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhat would be interesting is to see if monkeys not known for making tools have the same perception when trained to use a specific tool.
I just told my teenage daughter about this article, and she immediately responded, "that explains why I'm 'one' with my texting cellphone..." *sigh*
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne would think that driving a car becomes second nature, but if that's the case, there are many people who's brains simply aren't working right.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAny Walmart parking lot on a Saturday will tell you that.
It goes farther than tools. Social organizations such as business organizations are structural extensions of how the human nervous system is structured to integrate experience. See Inside Our Three Brains at www.cosmic-mindreach.com.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy first reaction was "extended phenotype".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUsig a hammer and driving a car may be.Try using a golf club,then the brain finds difficuty with its extended phenotype.even if you are Tiger Woods.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe missing letter syndrome,that my brain produces.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHey, is this idea new? Has anyone read Micael Polanyis 'The Tacit Dimension', 1966(!) ?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPage 16
"We may regard this as the transformation of the tool or probe into a sentient extension of our body, as Samuel Butler has said. ..."
Can anyone do me a favor and explain the last sentence for me? I can't understand it completely. Thanks very much.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis phenomenon is described at length in the book "The Body Has a Mind of Its Own" by Sandra Blakeslee and Matt Blakeslee (random house, sept 07.) It explains why kids get sucked into video games (the joystick is a tool), why you duck your head when you enter a parking garage and much much more....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this