INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, ImpAct Team, 69000, Lyon, France.
Exp Brain Res. 2012 Apr;218(2):259-71. doi: 10.1007/s00221-012-3028-5. Epub 2012 Feb 17.
Along the evolutionary history, humans have reached a high level of sophistication in the way they interact with the environment. One important step in this process has been the introduction of tools, enabling humans to go beyond the boundaries of their physical possibilities. Here, we focus on some "low level" aspects of sensorimotor processing that highlight how tool-use plays a causal role in shaping body representations, an essential plastic feature for efficient motor control during development and skilful tool-use in the adult life. We assess the evidence supporting the hypothesis that tools are incorporated in body representation for action, which is the body schema, by critically reviewing some previous findings and providing new data from on-going work in our laboratory. In particular, we discuss several experiments that reveal the effects of tool-use both on the kinematics of hand movements and the localization of somatosensory stimuli on the body surface, as well as the conditions that are necessary for these effects to be manifested. We suggest that overall these findings speak in favour of genuine tool-use-dependent plasticity of the body representation for the control of action.
在进化历史中，人类在与环境相互作用的方式上达到了高度的复杂性。这个过程中的一个重要步骤是引入工具，使人类能够超越自身身体能力的限制。在这里，我们关注一些感觉运动处理的“低水平”方面，这些方面突出了工具使用如何在塑造身体表象方面发挥因果作用，而身体表象是发展过程中有效运动控制和熟练工具使用的一个重要的可塑性特征。我们通过批判性地回顾一些先前的发现，并提供我们实验室正在进行的新数据，来评估支持工具被纳入行动的身体表象（即身体图式）这一假设的证据。具体来说，我们讨论了几个实验，这些实验揭示了工具使用对手部运动运动学和身体表面上躯体感觉刺激定位的影响，以及这些影响表现出来的必要条件。我们认为，总的来说，这些发现支持了身体表象在动作控制方面的真正的、依赖于工具使用的可塑性。
