Practice-dependent changes in body representation but not in reaching distance following virtual tool-use.

Overview

Authors: Amir Jahanian Najafabadi¹, Christoph Kayser¹

ORCID iDs: Amir Jahanian Najafabadi

Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

Institutions: Bielefeld University (Germany)

Journal: PloS one, volume 21, issue 10, article e0361297

Dates: received 14 April 2026; accepted 8 October 2026; published online 27 October 2026

Type: Research article · Language: English

License: CC BY

Identifiers: DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0361297 · PMID 42945337 · PMCID PMC13712681 · OpenAlex W7223811547

Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)

Status: data only (how the code is found and verified)

Categories: human (organism), cognitive (subfield)

Methods: Statistics, fMRI & imaging

MeSH: Body Image*, Distance Perception*, Adult, Female, Humans, Male, Psychomotor Performance, User-Computer Interface, Virtual Reality, Young Adult (* major topic)

Journal subjects: Biology and Life Sciences, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Cognitive Psychology, Perception, Sensory Perception, Psychology, Social Sciences, Anatomy, Body Limbs, Arms, Forearms, Medicine and Health Sciences, Vision, Hands, Engineering and Technology, Measurement, Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, Man-Computer Interface, Virtual Reality, Computer and Information Sciences, Computer Architecture, User Interfaces

Topic: Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts (Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science), according to OpenAlex

Funding: Universität Bielefeld

Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 58 references in the paper

Abstract

Previous research has shown that tool-use can modify neural representations of our body and the space surrounding us. Furthermore, virtual tools can become incorporated into the user’s body representation after training. However, the extent to which such changes depend on the amount of sensorimotor experience remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated whether different amounts of virtual tool-use training (30, 60, 90 and 120 trials) influence body and action-oriented spatial representations. Participants completed a tactile distance judgment (TDJ) task, indexing body representation; and a reaching distance estimation (RDE) task, indexing perceived actionable space, before and after virtual tool-use training. Virtual tool-use produced an overall decrease in TDJ responses, indicating plastic changes in the forearm tactile distance perception. Although the magnitude of change varied across training conditions, the strongest and most reliable evidence for TDJ change emerged following 120 trials of practice, suggesting that extended sensorimotor experience may be required for stable modifications of body representations. In contrast, RDE changed modestly from pre-test to post-test but did not vary systematically with training duration, suggesting that perceived reaching distance may adapt more rapidly and with less dependence on additional practice. Arm length was a significant predictor of RDE error, indicating that stable anatomical constraints continue to influence reachability judgments despite tool-use experience. Together, these findings suggest a dissociation between body representation and perceived reaching distance, with each exhibiting distinct temporal dynamics following tool-use training. More broadly, the results demonstrate that virtual tool-use can induce changes that transfer to subsequent physical assessment, highlighting virtual environments as a valuable framework for investigating body representation plasticity and tool embodiment.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Data

Datasets cited

osf:e4ux6, at OSF; found in “Data Availability”

Data Availability

The data supporting the conclusions of this article has been made available on OSF.org and is accessible via https://osf.io/e4ux6/metadata/osf (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/E4UX6).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Version 1, 30 October 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 2 authors, 10 MeSH terms, 1 funder, 57 references.

Cite

This paper

Jahanian Najafabadi, A., & Kayser, C. (2026). Practice-dependent changes in body representation but not in reaching distance following virtual tool-use. PloS one, 21(10), e0361297. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361297

BibTeX

@article{jahaniannajafabadi2026practice, author = {Jahanian Najafabadi, Amir and Kayser, Christoph}, title = {{Practice-dependent changes in body representation but not in reaching distance following virtual tool-use}}, journal = {PloS one}, year = {2026}, month = oct, volume = {21}, number = {10}, pages = {e0361297}, publisher = {PLOS}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0361297}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361297}, pmid = {42945337}, pmcid = {PMC13712681} }

RIS

TY - JOUR AU - Jahanian Najafabadi, Amir AU - Kayser, Christoph TI - Practice-dependent changes in body representation but not in reaching distance following virtual tool-use T2 - PloS one J2 - PLoS One PY - 2026 DA - 2026/10/27 VL - 21 IS - 10 SP - e0361297 SN - 1932-6203 PB - PLOS DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0361297 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0361297 LA - en ER -

CSL-JSON

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