60-Second Science

Tools Are Body Parts to Brain

In a report in the journal Current Biology, researchers claim that the brain interprets a tool, such as a hammer, as a temporary extension of your physical body. Karen Hopkin reports














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[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


11 Comments

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  1. 1. nthmost 07:33 AM 6/23/09

    No wonder driving a car, riding a bike, and touch-typing on a keyboard become "second nature".

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  2. 2. xylyx3d 10:22 AM 6/23/09

    no wonder we say "we can feel the road" when driving a car.

    what would be interesting is to see if monkeys not known for making tools have the same perception when trained to use a specific tool.

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  3. 3. FlashMob 11:59 AM 6/23/09

    I just told my teenage daughter about this article, and she immediately responded, "that explains why I'm 'one' with my texting cellphone..." *sigh*

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  4. 4. coolmoss in reply to nthmost 12:19 PM 6/23/09

    One 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.
    Any Walmart parking lot on a Saturday will tell you that.


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  5. 5. Weir 08:22 PM 6/23/09

    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.

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  6. 6. ArthurDental 08:55 PM 6/23/09

    My first reaction was "extended phenotype".

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  7. 7. octoman 01:12 AM 6/24/09

    Usig 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.

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  8. 8. octoman in reply to octoman 01:18 AM 6/24/09

    The missing letter syndrome,that my brain produces.

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  9. 9. ipen 03:40 AM 6/24/09

    Hey, is this idea new? Has anyone read Micael Polanyis 'The Tacit Dimension', 1966(!) ?

    Page 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. ..."

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  10. 10. zyue86 06:41 AM 6/24/09

    Can anyone do me a favor and explain the last sentence for me? I can't understand it completely. Thanks very much.

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  11. 11. blakes 02:26 PM 6/25/09

    This 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....

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