Reaching with a tool extends visual– tactile interactions into far space: Evidence from cross-modal extinction

“Increased extinction when wielding the stick could be predicted on the basis of recent physiological results from multimodal neurons in the intraparietal sulcus [13].”

“This may relate to multimodal neurons found in several areas of monkey cortex, responding to both vision and touch with spatially corresponding receptive fields in the two modalities [2,8–11].”

“[ 45 ]. However, the effect of distance was attenuated (i.e.”

“[66] found that a visual event at the distant right-hand side produced more extinction of touch on the left hand if it appeared at the far end of a stick wielded in the right hand, rather than in the absence of the stick, or in the presence of a stick that contacted the distant right visual target but did not directly…”

“…of an analogous effect in humans by showing that the extent of crossmodal extinction induced on left tactile perception by visual stimuli in the right far space increased if these stimuli were presented close to a tool that the patient had actively operated (see also Maravita et al., 2001, 2002b).”

“…later how such a phenomenon might relate to recent physiological data on plasticity induced by tool-use (Iriki et al., 1996; Iriki, Tanaka, Obayashi, & Iwamura, 2001), and to recent neuropsychological studies on this issue (Berti & Frassinetti, 2000; Farnè & Ladavas, 2000; Maravita et al., 2001).”

“Similar results have been described in extinction patients who, after tool-use, showed changes in cross-modal extinction that were compatible with a tool-usedependent remapping of action space (see Farnè and Làdavas, 2000; Maravita et al., 2001).”

“…using a tool to reach distant objects, crossmodal extinction for a tactile stimulus presented on the contralesional hand increased when a visual stimulus was presented at the tip of the tool, as compared to before tool-use (Farnè et al. 2005; Farnè and Làdavas 2000; see also Maravita et al. 2001).”

“The fact that active tool use is necessary for modifying peri-hand space is prima facie at variance with a previous single case study (Maravita et al., 2001, 2003) whereby ‘passive’ experience with a stick increased cross-modal extinction.”

“This mental process was recently confirmed to occur also in human patients’ brain (Berti and Frassinetti, 2000; Farne and Ladavas, 2000; Marvita et al., 2001).”

“The crossmodal congruency effect elicited by the visual distractors in this task depended not only upon the spatial proximity between the target stimuli and the distractors, but also upon a ‘‘functional’’ proximity in terms of action space (for logically related reports in brain-damaged patients, see [1,9,25,80, 83,10…”

“When using tools, peripersonal space becomes extended into extrapersonal space (Berti and Frassinetti, 2000; Farnè and Làdavas, 2000; Maravita et al., 2001; Farnè et al., 2007).”

“…space around the hand to be dynamic, extending a virtual body envelope around not only the hand but also non-body objects within it, such as tools (Maravita et al. 2001, 2002; for an alternative view, see Holmes et al. 2004), artificial limbs (Botvinick et al. 1998; Graziano et al. 2000; Pavani…”

“Crossmodal extinction is typically decreased when the ipsilesional visual stimulus is moved far away from the body, but can increase again if the same far stimulus is reached by a long tool (Berti & Frassinetti, 2000; Maravita et al., 2001) or following a training in reaching using a long tool (Farn e & L adavas 2000).”

“In a closely related single case study, Maravita and colleagues (Maravita, Husain, Clarke, & Driver, 2001 ) similarly found that visuo-tactile extinction was stronger when the patient wielded the tip of a stick close to the visual stimulus than in absence of the stick, or when the stick was present but physically disc…”

“…to be dynamic, extending a virtual body envelope not only around the hand but also non-body objects within it, such as tools (Iriki et al., 1996; Maravita et al., 2001, 2002; for an alternative view see Holmes et al., 2004) and artificial limbs (Armel and Ramachandran, 2003; Botvinick and…”

“For an example, forearms was altered, the matching of occluded Maravita et al. (2001) examined the extension of the forearms was influenced by the direction of the hand by a tool in a patient with cross-modal visual– eigenvector.”

“For instance, Maravita et al.[17] found that tactile extinction on the contralesional hand could be induced by a concurrent visual event on the ipsilesional side, provided the visual stimulus appeared in peripersonal space (see also [21]).”

“Maravita et al. showed that through training, tools can become externalized so that visual-tactile interaction extends into far space (Maravita et al., 2001) and representations can change following active tooluse, which can extend the participants’ representation of peripersonal space (Maravita,…”

“…a limited amount of experience, movement constraints imposed on the joints determine whether the CNS is able to achieve the goal of safe passage through a narrow space under transiently altered body dimensions (see Maravita et al. 2001, for similar discussion on adaptation to a hand-held stick).”

“Crossmodal extinction, then, clearly provides a method for testing the hypothesis that tool use extends peripersonal space, and all the available data suggest indeed that it does (Farnè and Làdavas, 2000; Farnè et al. 2005a, b; Bonifazi et al. 2007; Maravita et al. 2001, 2002a).”

“Similar tool-use effects have been reported in patients with Plasticity of Near Space 4 visuotactile extinction (e.g., Maravita et al., 2001), although there may be cases when prior exposure to the tool is necessary for expansion (Farnè & Làdavas, 2000).”

“This finding is consistent with previous reports and further confirms the well known nearfar modulation (di Pellegrino et al., 1997; Làdavas, 2002; Maravita et al., 2001).”

“…many other tool-use studies do not conform to this standard model (Ackroyd et al., 2002; Berti and Frassinetti, 2000; Forti and Humphreys, 2004; Holmes et al., 2004; Maravita et al., 2001, 2002b; Pegna et al., 2001; Schendel and Robertson, 2004; Yamamoto and Kitazawa, 2001; Yamamoto et al., 2005).”

“…of crossmodal extinction and tool use, the phase during which crossmodal extinction was tested was also the active tool use phase itself—i.e., this study followed a diVerent, " concurrent " design (Maravita et al. 2001; see also Berti and Frassinetti 2000; Holmes et al. 2007; Pegna et al. 2001).”

“…2014), despite many evidences support that these effects are meant because of an extension of the PPS (Canzoneri et al., 2013; Farnè et al., 2005; Maravita et al., 2001, 2003; Maravita and Iriki 2004), it is still debatable whether they could be due to a mere shift in spatial attention (Holmes…”

“…using a tool, which extends the possibilities of reaching objects in the far space, also extends the limits of hand-centered PPS (Iriki et al., 1996; Berti and Frassinetti, 2000; Farne and Ladavas, 2000; Maravita et al., 2001; Longo and Lourenco, 2006; Canzoneri et al., 2013b; Marini et al., 2014).”

“Finally, pointing movements towards distant objects did produce crossmodal extinction entirely comparable to that obtained in the pre-tool-use condition, showing that the expansion of hand peripersonal space is strictly dependent upon the use of the tool [19, 47 ], aimed at physically reaching objects located outside…”

“In humans, neuropsychological (Farnè and Làdavas, 2000; Maravita et al., 2001) and psychophysical (Holmes et al., 2004; Maravita and Iriki, 2004; Serino et al., 2007) studies demonstrated that, after using a tool, crossmodal interactions between tactile stimuli at the hand and visual or auditory…”

“Because near space representation was affected by the brain damage, the remapping of far space as near affected the patients’ performance in line bisection, and neglect reappeared (see also Farnè & Làdavas, 2000; Maravita et al., 2001).”

“ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 30 May 2014 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00492 Tool use imagery triggers tool incorporation in the body schema”

“Results have shown that the location of visual stimuli, such as when it is close to a body part, can interfere with patients’ tactile performance (Farnè and Làdavas, 2000; Maravita et al., 2001, 2002; Farnè et al., 2005; Bonifazi et al., 2007).”

“…effective peri-personal space toward the tip of the tool, as if the tool were somehow able to receive tactile stimulation (Berti and Frassinetti 2000; Farnè and Làdavas 2000; Holmes et al. 2004; Holmes and Spence 2004; Iriki et al. 1996; Maravita et al. 2001, 2002a, b; Maravita and Iriki 2004).”

“…neurons along the rake used by monkeys to retrieve out-of-hand-reach objects (Iriki et al., 1996; Obayashi et al., 2001), recent studies have shown fast and reversible elongation of the multisensory peripersonal space representation in humans (Farnè & Làdavas, 2000; Maravita et al., 2001b).”

“In a sighted person, visual space is also remapped, so that things within the extended reach of the tool seem nearer to them (Maravita et al. 2001; Maravita et al. 2002).”

“Moreover, in a recent report on the same patient described here (Maravita et al., 2001), as well as in a group study by Farné and Làdavas (2000), it has been shown that when extinction patients use a long tool with the ipsilesional hand to reach for far visual stimuli in ipsilesional visual space, cross-modal extincti…”

“…presented in peripersonal space may well display a similar deficit in extrapersonal space following the use of a stick to perform a particular task, but not, interestingly, when using a laser pointer (e.g., Berti and Frassinetti, 2000; see also Pegna et al. (2001) and Maravita et al. (2001)).”

“…contributed to establishing a spatial interaction between the tip of the tool and tactile stimuli received on the hand, although subjects did not actively wield the tools during the present experiments (cf. Holmes and Spence 2004; Iriki et al. 1996; Maravita et al. 2001, 2002; Riggio et al. 1986).”

“There is a signiWcant literature in neurosciences indicating that active tool use extends the boundary of peripersonal space, i.e., the visual space immediately surrounding the body or parts of the body (Farnè and Làdavas 2000; Holmes et al. 2007; Iriki et al. 1996; Maravita et al. 2001).”

“Complementary evidence of peri-hand space re-sizing following tool-use have been reported in neglect and extinction patients (Ackroyd, Riddoch, Humphreys, Nightingale, & Townsend, 2002; Berti & Frassinetti, 2000; Maravita et al., 2002a, 2001; but see, Pegna et al., 2001), as well as in normal participants (Maravita, S…”

“, a light pen) is used to point [Berti and Frassinetti, 2000; Maravita et al., 2001].”

“Evidence has shown that tools can be incorporated in body representation (Cardinali et al., 2009; Maravita, Husain, Clarke, & Driver, 2001).”

“Growing evidence from neurophysiological and neuropsychological studies has shown that the active, purposeful use of a tool can extend the range of near space by changing both neural and behavioral responses (Legrand, Brozzoli, Rossetti, & Farne, 2007 ; Farne, Iriki, & Ladavas, 2005 ; Maravita, Husain, Clarke, & Drive…”

“The apparent similarity between the Colavita eVect in normal participant and crossmodal extinction in neuropsychological patients may make the insights gained studying the Colavita eVect particularly relevant to our understanding the phenomenon of extinction (e.g., Bender 1952; Maravita et al. 2001; Mattingley et al.…”

“…its size/shape as a function of changes in upper limb function or structure, such as after tool-use (Canzoneri et al., 2013; Farnè & Làdavas, 2000; Maravita et al., 2001; see Maravita & Iriki, 2004, for a review, and Serino et al. 2015 for a computational account of these effects), amputation and…”

“…the severity of extinction can be modified by the active use of a tool that may extend the physical reach of hand actions (Farnè and ladavas 2000; Maravita et al. 2001). this effect is closely related to the functionally effective length of the tool (Farnè et al. 2005). taken together, these and…”

“modal extinction, static flashing LEDs and three-dimensional rapid movements of an experimenter’s finger have been shown, in one study, to result in comparable levels of visual-tactile interactions [14].”