The brain’s internal map adapts to include prosthetics
From New Scientist:
The brain maintains a physical map of the body, with different areas in charge of different body parts. Researchers have suggested that when we use tools, our brains incorporate them into this map.
To test the idea, Alessandro Farné of the University of Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, and colleagues attached a mechanical grabber to the arms of 14 volunteers. The modified subjects then used the grabber to pick up out-of-reach objects.
Shortly afterwards, the volunteers perceived touches on their elbow and fingertip as further apart than they really were, and took longer to point to or grasp objects with their hand than prior to using the tool.
The explanation, say the team, is that their brains had adjusted the brain areas that normally control the arm to account for the tool and not yet adjusted back to normal.
“This is the first evidence that tool use alters the body [map],” says Farné.
Farné says the same kind of brain “plasticity” might be involved in regaining control of a transplanted hand or a prosthetic limb when the original has been lost.
via Cat Vincent
I’m really surprised that people (apparently) haven’t done this kind of research before. Given that the brain would have to account for all the changes wrought by controlling a growing organism, it makes sense that this kind of model exists. Heck, anyone who’s had a period of uncoordinatedness as a result of a growth spurt can tell you that it takes a bit of time to adjust, and that’s not just due to muscle growth/fatigue.
(Also, all your internal links on this article seem to be 404ing - looks like they’re using some kind of internal reference scheme rather than your standard date-based URLs.)
Broken links removed.. bad copy’n'paste on my part there; I guess that’s what happens when I post on flu meds.
First evidence? Dr. Nicolelis at Duke University made a quite stunning demonstration of the brain’s plasticity, without even looking for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTVVYYxY9Cs
The whole video is interesting, but the part relevant to this article starts at about 4:20 (insert pothead joke here)
New scientist don’t exactly have their rubber finger on the pulse here. Neuroplasticity in amputees has been measured in many ways for a long time.
EMG, nerve conductivity mapping, PET, fMRI just to name a few. The real discovery here is the pace, and that peripheral tools are also incorporated into the humunculus.
For a delicious controversy between hard core neural implantation vs. simpler control via harnessing dynamic systems theory, google todd kuiken and Peter Kyberd and compare their approaches. They are scholars though so it never gets nasty. Just one costs about a zillion dollars and the other about 100. With maybe 100k upper limb amputees in the world, you do the maths.