The Invisible Hand

How the “invisible hand” of the nervous system makes the human hand such an evolutionary success.

The hand has a central role in both human evolution and cultural development—in our descent and in our ascent. It is, Immanuel Kant said, “the visible part of the brain.” It is the invisible that concerns Matthew Longo in The Invisible Hand, a wide-ranging, deftly written account of the neural and cognitive mechanisms that have made a seemingly ordinary physical appendage an extraordinary tool in the evolution of humanity.

The hand has been the focus of an enormous amount of research from a dizzying range of disciplines, from anatomy, psychology, and neuroscience to evolutionary biology and archaeology. With the concept of the invisible hand, Longo integrates and contextualizes the findings from these disparate fields to show how the neurocognitive mechanisms that comprise the invisible hand are central to understanding a wide array of phenomena, including basic sensory and motor function, space perception, gesture, and even the self. More generally, he contends that the extraordinary abilities of the hand arise precisely from the complementary nature and tight integration of the visible and invisible hands—a proposition that leads deep into topics as diverse as haptics, tool use, handedness, phantom limbs, and evolution. His work elucidates and significantly expands a key chapter of the story of human evolution and culture as manifested in the human hand.Preface: The Visible and Invisible Hands
Acknowledgments
List of Acronyms Used
1 The Visible Hand
2 The Sensing Hand
3 The Moving Hand
4 The Acting Hand
5 The Exploring Hand
6 The Embodied Hand
7 The Hand in Space
8 The Expert Hand
9 The Diseased Hand
10 The Extended Hand
11 The Evolving Hand
12 The Developing Hand
13 The Bilateral Hand
14 The Dominant and Non-Dominant Hands
15 The Communicating Hand
Epilogue: The Future of the Invisible Hand
Notes
References
Index“This book will give a depth and breadth of scientific overview that goes well beyond any single disciplinary training and explains the beautiful sensory and motor mechanisms that make our hands capable of such extraordinary things.”
—Patrick Haggard, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London
 
“Unique in its approach and depth, The Invisible Hand stands as a landmark in the field, establishing a vital framework for future research.”
—Frederique de Vignemont, Deputy Director, Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris
 
“I have to hand it to Matthew Longo: he’s given us an amazingly detailed but highly readable compilation of information about the human hand from its basic design to its intimate role in communication . . . Bravo.”
—Melvyn A. Goodale, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, The University of Western OntarioMatthew R. Longo is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Birkbeck, University of London, where he directs the Body Representation Laboratory.