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Related Experiment Videos

The brain's fingers and hands.

Patrick Haggard1, Keiko Kitadono, Clare Press

  • 1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, University College London, Alexandra House, London, UK. p.haggard@ucl.ac.uk

Experimental Brain Research
|December 22, 2005
PubMed
Summary

The brain uses a body schema to identify hand location in space, but finger identification relies on a somatotopic map. Hand identification is impaired when fingers are interwoven, suggesting spatial processing influences body part recognition.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Somatosensory Research

Background:

  • The brain integrates sensory input to maintain a representation of the body in space, known as the body schema.
  • Tactile localization can rely on either a somatotopic map or a more general body schema for spatial awareness.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether tactile localization of body parts uses distinct representations for fingers versus hands.
  • To determine the influence of body posture and spatial arrangement on tactile identification of body parts.

Main Methods:

  • Healthy participants received tactile stimuli on their fingertips.
  • Hands were positioned either vertically aligned or with fingers interwoven.
  • Speeded verbal responses were used to identify the stimulated finger or hand.

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Main Results:

  • Interweaving fingers significantly impaired the identification of which hand was touched.
  • Finger identification remained unaffected by the interwoven hand posture.
  • This dissociation suggests distinct neural pathways for finger and hand localization.

Conclusions:

  • Finger identification appears to rely on a somatotopic representation or finger schema.
  • Hand identification utilizes a general body schema influenced by external spatial cues.
  • The body schema plays a crucial role in identifying body parts based on tactile input and spatial context.