Mistakes About Body Shapes

British Council

When we know somewhere well， we say we ‘know it like the back of our hand. But new research has shown that how we think of our hands is wrong.

Wider and shorter

Dr Longo and his team did an experiment， covering the left hands of 100 people. Then， they asked the people to point to where they thought their fingertips and knuckles were. They made some quite big mistakes.

‘People think their hand is wider than it actually is， says Dr Longo. The fingers appear shorter than they are. This mistake increases as you go across the hand from the thumb to the little finger.

Sense of position

‘It is connected to our sense of position， explains Dr Longo. This is our ability to tell where different parts of our bodies are， even when we cant see them. ‘It tells us whether a joint is straight or not， he says. It also tells us whether we are going up or down in a lift. That information comes from signs from nerves in real time. ‘We also need to know the distance between joints， he continues. The brain knows the size and shape of our body from the maps it has. ‘This experiment tried to find those maps.

Strength of feeling

These mistakes may be due to how the brain understands different parts of the skin. ‘Our brains “see” areas as larger where the skin feels touch strongly， says Dr Longo. Body parts dont appear as their true size， but appear bigger or smaller depending on how strongly they feel touch. Our lips， for example， have more nerves than our nose. So our brain ‘sees lips on its map of the body as being bigger than our nose. The same thing happens for other parts of the body which have lots of nerves.

Dr Longo believes that more research in this area may help us to understand eating problems better.

This simplified version by Martha Henderson， adapted from the original article by John OReilly.

Activity 1

Before you read， match the word to a definition.

1. fingertip 2. joint 3. knuckle

4. nerve 5. sense 5. sense

a. ability to see， hear， taste， touch， smell

b. something that takes electrical messages to and from the brain

c. the end of a finger

d. the place where your fingers join your hand

e. the place where two bones meet

Activity 2

Read the text again. Choose the correct answers from the box.

1. brain 2. fingers 3. fingertips and knuckles

4. hand 5. joints 6. lips

Example： What did the people in the experiment point to？

fingertips and knuckles

1. What feels wider than it really is？

2. What feel shorter than they are？

3. What do we need to know the distance between？

4. What feels bigger than your nose？

5. What sees parts of the body as larger than they are？

Activity 3

Look at this sentence from the text：

Dr Longo and his team did an experiment.

When some verbs go well with some nouns， we say they ‘collocate. In the example， we can say that the verb do collocates with the noun an experiment.

Do these words and phrases collocate with ‘make or ‘do？ Write them in the correct boxes. The first one has been done for you.

an experiment a list a mistake notes

a plan research a study a test

do make

an experiment

a

Activity 4

Try the experiment with a friend： cover their hand and ask them to point to their knuckles， little finger and thumb. Tell them why they made mistakes.

Answers

Activity 1   1. c; 2. e; 3. d; 4. b; 5. a

Activity 2

1. hand; 2. fingers; 3. joints; 4. lips; 5. brain

Activity 3

Do： a test; research; a study

Make： a mistake; a plan; notes; a list