Re: [xmca] Tool-use induces morphological updating of the body schema

[Ivan Rosero <irosero@ucsd.edu>]

Reminds me of the well known "personal space" that grows to cover the space
around one's car while driving.  Now, given that I don't walk into my house
after driving a car and still think that I'm 12 ft. long and 8 ft. wide, it
makes sense to me to think of these somatosensory (de)adaptations as highly
dynamic and contingent processes.
When, however, tool use is systematic during the course of long stretches of
time, so that one becomes an "expert" tool user (a craftsman) then I think
the change is much more permanent than the transitory effects of ad-hoc
adjustment, which seems to be what the paper is describing (like the car
example).
And once this happens, the actual mind-body internalization of a tool, it
then becomes available to thought and
social processes (I would expect) in qualitatively more subtle and
wide-ranging ways.
 Actually, this doesn't have to be phrased so cautiously, it can be
routinely observed among members of particular communities of practice, say
construction workers, laboratory laser engineers, teachers...  I mean, the
highly specific ways tools mediate social interaction and provide
metaphors/scaffolds for thought.

Anyway, it would be interesting to neuro-image, and otherwise test and
compare, the population in the article with individuals who habitually
make use of reaching/grasping extenders in order to compensate for
limited mobility,
that is, with an expert population.

Thanks for the article Michiel,

Ivan

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 9:21 AM, Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks you BOTH for that lesson in modern communication. The topic is
> fasicinating. Man makes himself, re-dux?
> mike
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 8:35 PM, Ivan Rosero <irosero@ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
>> doi refers to the "document object identifier", it is a universal ID which
>> you can "resolve" to various sources.  The following site
>> http://dx.doi.org/
>>
>> can be used to do this.  It resolves the ID to
>>
>> Lucilla Cardinali, Francesca Frassinetti, Claudio Brozzoli, Christian
>> Urquizar, Alice C. Roy, Alessandro Farnè. Tool-use induces morphological
>> updating of the body schema. Biology Vol 19 No 12
>>
>> which is attached.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 5:25 PM, Mike Cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Michiel-- Your message did not come through. It appears to be a doc.
>>> Nice web page!!
>>> mike
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 4:34 AM, Eijck, M.W. van <m.w.v.eijck@tue.nl>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> > This may be of interest to this community:
>>> >
>>> > doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.05.009
>>> >
>>> > Michiel
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > xmca mailing list
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>>> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>> >
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>
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