A talk by Luke E. Miller (Donders Centre for Cognition, Radboud University)
Theoretical background/relevance:
Mind is more than the brain, mind as influenced by bodily cognition ⇒ see 4E framework.. Tools form part of external cognitive capacities ⇒ See extended mind hypothesis Chalmers
Summary:
Tool use is a characteristically human capability to use parts of the environment to augment bodily abilities. It is apparent that this use thereby alters bodily experience.
In how far does the tool become part of the sensorimotor system?
1. Extended tactile perception
Experiment:
Using a rod to feel an active touch or passively getting touched
different type of sensing, no local information, temporal signal gets transformed into spatial map
Problematic: During vs. after tool use: during hard to study
Result:
A Phenomenal projection seems to extend to the whole tool, not just the tip. Active touch can be located more easily on the tool with an accuracy of 0.93r, passively getting touched also can be located significantly well with an r of 0.6.
Explanation:
How do we sense it? vibrational dynamics in rod
Literature
Maravit, Irki 2004, Miller et al 2019b, Yamamoto et al 2005
Miller et al 2018: Extended tactile perception paradigm
2. Are neural processes reused for extended perception?
(Miller et al 2019, Fabio et al 2022)
Experiment:
Comparing SEPs measured by EEG ⇒
Early SEP: detailed body map
Late SEP: Higher level spatial info
Result: similar timing between arm and tool touch
Further analysis by RSA:
matching tool vs matching arm similarity should be bigger tham
non matching tool vs. non matching arm
Condition not surface predicts response= Response between tool and arm is similar
Sources of activity (brain regons used over time) are similar
3. How fine grained are neural representations of touch on an extended body part?
Does the brain integrate fine grained spatial info from touch on a tool?
Integration of information for localization:
propioception + touch + visual
Task: Is the hit above or below a point on the tool where you are looking?
Result: Sensitivity is very similar between tool and arm
Locations of touch are decodable by EEG
Conclusions:
-
Users can sense touch along the entire surface of a tool
-
mapping the body is repurposed
-
mapping is fine grained
- Yes tools are part of our sensimotor system
Opinion:
Open questions:
Q:
SOurce reconstruction?
Cluster based pemrutation test ?
SOmatosensory evoked potentials?
050 🧠Neuroscience
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