Humans can ‘borrow’ robot hands as their own, scientists discover

Researchers from the Italian Institute of Technology and Brown University have discovered that humans can unconsciously incorporate a humanoid robot’s hand into their body schema—the brain’s internal map of the body and its spatial relationship to the environment—especially when collaborating on a task. In experiments involving a child-sized robot named iCub, participants who jointly sliced a soap bar with the robot showed faster reactions to visual cues near the robot’s hand, indicating that their brains treated the robot’s hand as part of their own near space. This effect was contingent on active collaboration and was influenced by the robot’s movement style, with broader, fluid, and well-synchronized gestures enhancing the cognitive integration. The study also found that physical proximity and the participant’s perception of the robot’s competence and pleasantness strengthened this integration. Participants who attributed more human-like traits or emotions to the robot exhibited a stronger cognitive bond, suggesting that empathy and partnership play important roles in human-robot interaction. These findings provide valuable insights for designing future robots that can