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Virtual tool-use: Do tool-use effects extend to virtual reality?
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Description: Recently, it has been suggested that movements in virtual environments may leverage different mechanisms than those in real environments, making it essential to validate virtual reality for the study of motor control and related processes, such as tool-use (Harris et al., 2019). A predominant theory of tool-use, termed tool embodiment, posits that tool-use is facilitated by changes to a highly plastic, action-oriented body representation termed the body schema (Martel, Cardinali, Roy, & Farnè, 2016). Following seminal work by Cardinali et al. (2009), changes in reaching kinematics and participants' localization of body landmarks have been taken as an indicators of tool embodiment. To determine whether the use of a virtual environment influences these tool-use effects, the present study seeks to replicate Cardinali et al. (2009)'s original work with several extensions, including the projection of a virtual environment via head-mounted display. Additionally, this work aims to clarify questions which remain unanswered by the literature substantiating the tool embodiment perspective. For example, it is unclear whether measures of the body representation are valid for their purpose: Kinematics have no clear relationship with the properties of the arm said to be altered by tool-use. Further, there are no instances wherein two tool embodiment measures have been successfully correlated within the same sample of participants.
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