Tool Use Affects Spatial Perception

Witt, Jessica K.

doi:10.1111/tops.12563

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 86 publications

(108 reference statements)

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“…This body state plasticity has been suggested to allow tools to become extensions of our limbs for action and perception (e.g. Arbib et al, 2009;Jacobs et al, 2009;Maravita and Iriki, 2004;Martel et al, 2016;Miller et al, 2019Miller et al, , 2018Witt, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body schema plasticity is altered in Developmental Coordination Disorder

et al. 2022

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body schema plasticity is altered in Developmental Coordination Disorder

et al. 2022

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“…Studies investigating the use of external devices to perform a task (i.e. “tool-usage”) have shown that attention to the external tool can alter the somatosensory representation of the body and spatial perception of the external world [ 34 – 36 ]. While there is limited evidence on how individuals incorporate rocker boards as a tool, we speculate that directed focus on the board may have led to a change in spatial awareness that lowered visual weighting when compared to the other conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of external and internal focus of attention on visual dependence and EEG alpha oscillations during postural control

Lei

Marshall

Wright

2022

J NeuroEngineering Rehabil

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Background The ability to maintain upright posture requires successful integration of multiple sensory inputs (visual, vestibular, and somatosensory). When one or more sensory systems become unreliable, the postural control system must “down-weight” (or reduce the influence of) those senses and rely on other senses to maintain postural stability. As individuals age, their ability to successfully reweight sensory inputs diminishes, leading to increased fall risk. The present study investigates whether manipulating attentional focus can improve the ability to prioritize different sensory inputs for postural control. Methods Forty-two healthy adults stood on a balance board while wearing a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display. The VR environment created a multisensory conflict amongst the different sensory signals as participants were tasked with maintaining postural stability on the balance board. Postural sway and scalp electroencephalography (EEG) were measured to assess visual weighting and cortical activity changes. Participants were randomized into groups that received different instructions on where to focus their attention during the balance task. Results Following the instructions to direct attention toward the movement of the board (external focus group) was associated with lower visual weighting and better balance performance than when not given any instructions on attentional focus (control group). Following the instructions to direct attention towards movement of the feet (internal focus group) did not lead to any changes in visual weighting or balance performance. Both external and internal focus groups exhibited increased EEG alpha power (8–13 Hz) activity over the occipital cortex as compared to the control group. Conclusions Current results suggest that directing one’s attention externally, away from one’s body, may optimize sensory integration for postural control when visual inputs are incongruent with somatosensory and vestibular inputs. Current findings may be helpful for clinicians and researchers in developing strategies to improve sensorimotor mechanisms for balance.

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“…The above list of topics is not our limit. Others of our researchers find that blind cane users feel the curb not the cane itself and that tennis players feel the racket as a part of their body (Witt, 2021). One group of contributors is dismayed by the state-of-the-art in research on animal tool use and propose a very interesting reboot of that field (Colbourne, Auersperg, Lambert, Huber, & Volter, 2021).…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 95%

Editors' Introduction to Tasks, Tools, and Techniques

Gray

Heersmink²

2021

Topics in Cognitive Science

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Tasks, tools, and techniques that we perform, use, and acquire, define the elements of expertise which we value as the hallmarks of goal-driven behavior. Somehow, the creation of tools enables us to define new tasks, or is it that the envisioning of new tasks drives us to invent new tools? Or maybe it is that new tools engender new techniques which then result in new tasks? This jumble of issues will be explored and discussed in this diverse collection of papers. Individually, few of the papers are related to each other by topic or by techniques of analysis. Collectively, all focus on tasks performed using tools and discuss the techniques of tool use which enable differences in performance and expertise across individuals, societies, and (even) species.

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Tool Use Affects Spatial Perception

Cited by 7 publications

References 86 publications

Body schema plasticity is altered in Developmental Coordination Disorder

Body schema plasticity is altered in Developmental Coordination Disorder

The impact of external and internal focus of attention on visual dependence and EEG alpha oscillations during postural control

Editors' Introduction to Tasks, Tools, and Techniques

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