Tool transformations

In tool use, humans have to consider the mapping between the bodily movements they execute and the effects (at the end of the tool or elsewhere in external space) that are produced by these movements. This mapping or “tool transformation” can either be quite transparent, for example when simple mechanical tools like a hammer are used, or it can be much less transparent, for example when humans use a computer mouse in order to produce desired effects on the computer screen.

The present project aims at investigating mechanisms and processes involved when humans use tools or acquire new mappings between their bodily movements and associated effects in external space. More specific questions concern the mechanisms of unimanual or bimanual coordination with tools or transformed feedback, sequence learning of transformed movements, the relationship between language and tool use, and mechanisms of switching between everyday tools.