Hand-tool connection is innate despite lack of limbs
Scientists have long known that the brain’s visual system shows considerable organization. Tests have repeatedly found that different parts of the brain are activated when people see different objects. Animals, body parts, tools, and large things such as houses, for example, are represented in different parts of the brain. What they haven’t known is how that specificity developed. Does the brain just know, innately, how to represent various domains of objects, or does experience play a critical role? The answer, Harvard scientists say, is that it’s largely innate. In recent years, research has shown that in people born blind, the visual system’s specificities are like those found in sighted individuals. This demonstrates that visual experience is not needed for the emergence of this organization. Because blind people do have experience in touching and using objects and tools, it raises the question of whether other sensory or motor experiences could be responsible for...