perception and embodiment

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all
"The Itch"
The New Yorker
by Atul Gawande
June 30, 2008

There are some interesting things in here about how perception works, in a neurological and perhaps even philosophical sense. It's also about itching. But I'm more concerned with some more incidental comments about the relation between perception and embodiment.

The basic idea, perhaps, is that what we perceive as 'our' bodies is closely related to what we perceive ourselves to have control over - combined with sensory feedback of various sorts, especially visual feedback. This perhaps points towards how we would go about building extensions of the human body; how we would go about integrating entirely inhuman technologies into a person's experiences. Perhaps. (Of course, one might wonder: how far beyond the normal humanoid form can we stretch things?)

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10579
"Virtual Reality System Combats Phantom-Limb Pain"
November 15, 2006
NewScientist
by Will Knight