Human brain treats prosthetic devices as part of the body
March 8, 2013
(Credit: Stephen B Calvert/Wikimedia Commons)
The human brain can learn to treat relevant prosthetics as a substitute for a non-working body part, according to research published March 6 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Mariella Pazzaglia and colleagues from Sapienza University and IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia of Rome in Italy, supported by the International Foundation for Research in Paraplegie.
The researchers found that wheelchair-bound study participants with spinal cord injuries perceived their body’s edges as being plastic and flexible to include the wheelchair. Patients with lower spinal cord injuries who retained upper body movement showed a stronger association of the wheelchair with their body than those who had spinal cord impairments in the entire body.
According to the authors, this suggests that rather than being thought of only as an extension of the immobile limbs, the wheelchairs had become tangible, functional substitutes for the affected body part. As Pazzaglia explains, “The corporeal awareness of the tool emerges not merely as an extension of the body but as a substitute for, and part of, the functional self.”
Previous studies have shown that people with prosthetic devices that extend or restore movement may make such tools part of their physical identity, but whether this integration was due to prolonged use or a result of altered sensory input was unclear.
Based on the results of this study, the authors suggest that it may be the latter, as the brain appears to continuously update bodily signals to incorporate these tools into a sense of the body. The study concludes that this ability may have applications in rehabilitation of physically impaired people.
The research was funded by the International Foundation for Research in Paraplegie and EU Information and Communication Technologies.
Comments (7)
by Phil Osborn
Oh, forgot… David Brin’s new novel “Existence,” starts out with a near-future space environment scene in which this extended somatasphere plays a vital role. Don’t know personally if Brin partakes of pot… Again, it is only surprising that this research took so long to take place.
by Phil Osborn
This is something new? If it had not been for the idiotic drug laws, this would have been easilly confirmed and seen as obvious from at least the ’60′s. I recall well using pot in the late ’60′s to learn new techniques on my motorcycle, to the point that I explicitly thought at length about how it was that my somatic image could map so perfectly to a non-living object.
I think that anyone who used pot or similar drugs to enhance music appreciation, such as visualizing the separate musicians or simultaneously following multiple threads of melody, or to carry their conscious awareness thru all the normally locked doors of perception to a mental space that enabled that mapping, to move them from mere performance of music to a state of feeling that the stage, the audience, the instrument were all part of an extended somatasphere… would have had volumes to say about it.
The logical, rational thing for this group to do would be to investigate such things as cannabis, used as facilitators for extensions of somatic identity. Unfortunately, there is nothing so defended as a known lie that exists to begin with only because power is behind it and power has tied its basic credibility to the lie. Perhaps we could call on a certain Mr. Rand Paul to speak the truthes to power that are inconvenient.
by Bernard
This bodes well for direct mind control of military aircraft.
by Noahfreak
I can definitely relate to this finding, even though I’m not disabled in any way. It reminds me of my feelings toward my guitar, especially when I was younger and played for at least an hour a day. When I hold it in my hands, it feels more like an extension of my body rather than a separate object.
This would also explain why people become so attached to objects that potentially bring them so much grief. Like a tool that you use at work every day to do some undesirable task or an old car that you have to repair a lot and use to navigate through grueling traffic conditions.
by Toes
I imagine that to successfully drive a tractor trailer truck one must extend their thinking of self to include the truck and its maneuverability but of more interest to me are Apps. This morning I found myself compelled to purchase an external battery to maintain my hot spot while on mass transit and while walking around. I feel my nerve endings are painfully missing their Apps due to limited battery power.
PS – But it would be interesting to have side and center driver seat ticklers, vibrators (be good) to assist with parking. Far better than having a car that does the parking by itself in my opinion. Remember flight 447 where the pilots forgot how to fly the plane and so it clashed when the autopilot shutdown due too no velocity data. I’m glad to do my own parking, just please provide better sensory data thank you.
by Atmic
There will be some interesting results when the Oculus Rift rebirths VR soon, and people experience long-term, brain-tricking sessions with alternate bodies. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the brain over time.
by David
Interesting research although I suspect anyone who plays video games or drives a car will confer. The very fact that you stop consciously thinking about the activity you are involved in would suggest that the car or game controller becomes an extension of your own body.
I think the research could help thinking into how we design a whole range of interfaces and products thus making them more organic. For example – instead of having a parking sensor at the back of your car, you might have an all-round sensor that buzzes or vibrates more as you get closer to obstacles.