Related Experiment Videos
Functional brain mapping of monkey tool use
S Obayashi1, T Suhara, K Kawabe
1Division of Advanced Technology for Medical Imaging, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, CREST (JST), Chiba 263-8555, Japan. ohbayash@nirs.go.jp
Neuroimage
|September 14, 2001
Summary
Tool use integrates objects into the brain's "body-image." Neuroimaging reveals increased brain activity in specific regions during tool use, crucial for updating this body-image.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Primate Research
Background:
- Tool use leads to a psychological incorporation of the tool into the user's body schema.
- Bimodal neurons in the intraparietal area of the monkey brain show altered visual response properties during tool use, incorporating the tool.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate tool use-induced neural activation in the alert monkey brain using Positron Emission Tomography (PET).
- To identify brain regions involved in maintaining and updating the body-image during tool manipulation.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to measure cerebral blood flow changes in monkeys during tool use.
- Compared brain activity during tool use with a control condition involving simple stick manipulation.
Main Results:
- Significant increases in cerebral blood flow were observed in the intraparietal region, basal ganglia, presupplementary motor area, premotor cortex, and cerebellum during tool use.
- These activated areas are hypothesized to play a role in the dynamic updating of the body-image.
Conclusions:
- Tool use engages specific neural networks involved in body-image representation and adaptation.
- The findings suggest that the brain actively integrates tools into the body schema for effective interaction with the environment.