tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/elife-journal-18299/articleseLife (journal) – The Conversation2016-09-01T08:16:07Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/646932016-09-01T08:16:07Z2016-09-01T08:16:07ZStudy reveals why the brain can’t forget amputated limbs, even decades later<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136109/original/image-20160831-30775-m4sr4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Phantom limb effect: when the mind still sees what isn't there.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.blommestijn.com">www.blommestijn.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Amputees often report the phenomenon of “phantom limbs”, where they can still sense the presence of missing fingers, hands, arms, feet or legs, and even <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20827116">feel pain where the amputated parts once were</a>. So far, science has had no explanation for this phenomenon. </p>
<p>Now, using ultra-high resolution imaging, researchers from Oxford University have been able to examine the brains of amputees to see how their brains change following the loss of an arm. Seeing the brain at this level of detail has revealed for the first time that amputees’ brains retain an incredibly detailed map of the missing hand and individual fingers. The existence of this detailed hand map in the brain – decades after amputation – could be part of the explanation of the phantom limb phenomenon.</p>
<p>Sensory deprivation, for example in people experiencing blindness, deafness, or amputation, has long been a fruitful avenue for scientists studying brain plasticity. Lead researcher Sanne Kikkert, with her colleagues from the <a href="https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/research/hand-and-brain-lab">Hand and Brain Lab</a> led by associate professor Tamar Makin, took advantage of one aspect of the phantom limb phenomenon where amputees are not only able to feel the presence of or sensation in the missing limb, but can volitionally “control” their phantom hand, too. By asking individuals to move their phantom fingers individually while having their brains scanned, the representation of the phantom hand in the brain can be mapped out in detail.</p>
<p>Previous research has shown that <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2571">moving the phantom hand creates activity in the brain of amputees</a>, but until now it’s been difficult to say what this activity truly represents. It’s difficult to prove, for example, that the brain activity indicates the existence of a map of the missing hand, as opposed to some abnormal activity due to the amputation. </p>
<p>Kikkert’s study shows that phantom hand activity patterns contain important hallmarks of “normal” hand representation, for example the spatial layout of the fingers in relation to each other. In fact, the team was able to demonstrate the hand maps of the phantom hands were well within the range of those found in a control sample of two-handed participants. Considering that the sampled amputees lost their hands between 25 and 31 years previously, this is quite incredible.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136110/original/image-20160831-30794-100hork.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136110/original/image-20160831-30794-100hork.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136110/original/image-20160831-30794-100hork.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136110/original/image-20160831-30794-100hork.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136110/original/image-20160831-30794-100hork.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136110/original/image-20160831-30794-100hork.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136110/original/image-20160831-30794-100hork.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brain imaging reveals detailed maps of the individual fingers of the hand in amputees (bottom) that are startling similar compared to the hand maps of the two-handed control participants (top).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In their paper, <a href="https://elifesciences.org/content/5/e15292">published in the journal eLife</a>, the researchers were also able to rebut some other, more trivial explanations for phantom brain activity. They showed that the phantom hand activation does not result simply from the activation of muscles or nerves in the remaining limb of the amputees. For example, the hand maps remained the same in amputees who were missing these muscles (due to amputation above the elbow) or who could not send or receive inputs to the limb at all (due to nerve damage). However, it still remains a mystery whether the brain’s preserved hand map causes the phantom limb sensations, or whether the sensations themselves preserve the hand map in the brain.</p>
<h2>How the mind sees the body</h2>
<p>These findings are doubly exciting because they stand in contrast to traditional wisdom regarding how the sensory body map in the brain is generated and maintained. This sensory map is known as the <a href="http://www.brainfacts.org/%7E/media/Brainfacts/Article%20Multimedia/Educator%20Section/Olson%20Handout.ashx">somatosensory homunculus</a> (from the Greek for “little man”), and it has long fascinated scientists due to its highly organised structure. Organised, in that the body parts are laid out in the brain in a very similar way to how they are on the body:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136112/original/image-20160831-30801-fghomx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136112/original/image-20160831-30801-fghomx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136112/original/image-20160831-30801-fghomx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136112/original/image-20160831-30801-fghomx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136112/original/image-20160831-30801-fghomx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136112/original/image-20160831-30801-fghomx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136112/original/image-20160831-30801-fghomx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136112/original/image-20160831-30801-fghomx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A diagram of the ‘sensory homunculus’, depicting how parts of the body are mapped to the brain (shown in cross-section).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1421_Sensory_Homunculus.jpg">OpenStax College/Rice University</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It has long been believed that this map needs a constant stream of sensory input from the body to maintain its organisation. This idea was supported by considerable animal research showing that when a limb is amputated, the areas of the body nearby to that limb on the homunculus <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6835522">invade and overwrite the territory of the missing limb</a>.</p>
<p>Similar reorganisation has been documented in humans. A 2013 <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24220510">study</a> by Tamar Makin and colleagues showed that following amputation the remaining hand hijacks the brain territory of the missing hand. Their study also showed that this take-over was related to the way the participants use their bodies: the more amputees used their remaining hand to complete daily activities, the more that hand took up the missing hand’s brain resources, probably to support the overuse of the intact hand.</p>
<p>Kikkert found similar reorganisation in her group of amputees in the missing hand area of the brain, as well as the detailed hand maps. This means that following amputation not only is the original functionality of this brain area maintained, but it appears to be maintained despite the reorganisation that also takes place – a fact that has not previously been recognised. </p>
<p>This could be put to use in some pretty amazing technology developed for amputees and disabled individuals: “neuroprosthetics” refers to <a href="http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v15/n5/fig_tab/nrn3724_F1.html">artificial limbs that are controlled directly by the brain</a>, usually through electrodes implanted into the cortex. The hand maps preserved in the brain after amputation could be exploited to allow individual finger movement for these brain-machine interfaces.</p>
<p>As the team report, their findings “reopen the question of what happens to a cortical territory once its main inputs are removed” – and pose new possibilities for deeper explanations of the homunculus inside us all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64693/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harriet Dempsey-Jones is a researcher in the Hand and Brain Lab. </span></em></p>Even decades after amputation, the brain is still structured as if the hand were there, casting new light on ‘phantom limb’ phenomenon.Harriet Dempsey-Jones, Postdoctoral Researcher in Clinical Neurosciences, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/477262015-09-28T04:42:27Z2015-09-28T04:42:27ZHomo naledi fossil discovery a triumph for open access and education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95265/original/image-20150917-7498-1mw8l7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Skulls of Homo naledi.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Hawks</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/newsroom/newsitems/201509/27319/news_item_27319.html"><em>Homo naledi</em></a> has made headlines around the world as one of the most significant fossil discoveries ever made. </p>
<p>The unprecedented sample of fossils represents a rich record of an ancient population of human relatives, preserving nearly every part of the skeleton and spanning the lifespan.</p>
<p>Many people around the world have been following the compelling story of discovery from the first days of the excavation.</p>
<h2>Using social media to tell the story</h2>
<p>As our cavers and scientists worked underground in challenging conditions, we kept the world up to date on Twitter, Facebook and with our Rising Star Expedition <a href="http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/blog/rising-star-expedition/">blog</a>.</p>
<p>Since those first days, the team has worked to build open access into every stage of the project. People can now share not only in the discovery but also in the process of understanding these ancient hominins.</p>
<p>After nearly two years of work, on September 10 we published our first scientific papers on this <a href="http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e09560">discovery</a> in the journal eLIFE. These original scientific descriptions of these fossils and their geological context are free for anyone in the world to download and share. </p>
<p>In the week since we published these papers, the lead paper describing <em>Homo naledi</em> has been viewed more than 170,000 times – an extraordinary figure for any scientific <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/half-academic-studies-are-never-read-more-three-people-180950222/?no-ist">paper</a>.</p>
<p>Our team has also moved quickly to make our data available to anyone in the world. Many of our fossils are now represented by research-quality 3D scans on <a href="http://morphosource.org">MorphoSource</a>. </p>
<p>This online archive of data from skeletal and fossil discoveries, maintained by Duke University, provides a way to share large data sets both for scientific work and teaching. </p>
<h2>3D technology used in classrooms</h2>
<p>Our team has generated virtual reams of scans that enable anyone to visualise these fossils, and even to use 3D printing technology to create their own physical copies.</p>
<p>Right now, teachers and researchers all around the world are printing 3D models of the fossils of <em>Homo naledi</em>. Kristina Killgrove, a leader in applying 3D printing technology in her anthropology classroom, <a href="http://www.poweredbyosteons.org/2015/09/homo-naledi-3d-scans-available-on.html">wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I downloaded the model as an .STL file…and then printed it using my trusty old MakerBot. It took 20 minutes, tops. Then I gave the model to a grad student who was heading in to teach the undergraduate lab in biological anthropology. Bam! Species-announcement-to-teaching-cast in under 12 hours.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the first week after the announcement, more than 1700 copies of these data sets have been downloaded, with makers proudly showing off their printed models on Facebook and Twitter. </p>
<h2>Find broke boundaries</h2>
<p>Paleoanthropology has often been caricatured as the lone pursuit of fossils by Indiana-Jones-like characters. But in the 21st century, making new discoveries in paleoanthropology – as in all other areas of science – requires collaboration across many disciplines. </p>
<p>This project has involved a team of more than 60 scientists, each bringing their own distinctive expertise and data sets together to help solve the problems posed by these fossils. </p>
<p>The project is led from South Africa and stretches across international boundaries to impact the world. </p>
<p>At the event announcing <em>Homo naledi</em> at Maropeng, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, Adam Habib, remarked on the importance of open access for building a 21st century science:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We often talk about science as having no boundaries, but in our world scientific knowledge has become commodified, and too often, what should be the bequest of the world, the bequest of a common humanity, is locked up under paywalls that postgraduate students and researchers cannot get access to. So what we did when we made this discovery, was we put cameras in the cave, and we streamed it live from day one. </p>
<p>We partnered with eLIFE, an open access journal, to make sure that the discovery was available to all of humanity. And what we did in that practice, is create the first elements of a common global academy….We are not simply going to be beneficiaries of open access, but we are going to be contributors to open access, to the knowledge of a common humanity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>eLIFE editor Randy Schekman wrote about the benefits of open access publishing in 2013 when he won the Nobel Prize. His <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-break-free-from-the-stifling-grip-of-luxury-journals-21669">article</a>, entitled How to break free from the stifling grip of luxury journals, emphasised that by limiting access to publishing, traditional journals create artificial scarcity to distort the process of scientific communication. Open access makes for better science.</p>
<h2>Public engagement</h2>
<p>The open access philosophy has driven our work on <em>Homo naledi</em> from the beginning. Instead of keeping these discoveries veiled behind locked doors, we have tried to bring them to the public in ways that will drive greater curiosity and engagement with science. </p>
<p>We are proud to be able to share the original fossils with the public at Maropeng, where they will be on display until October 11. </p>
<p>Not only the public benefits from scientific open access; science itself benefits. Showing the process of science in action, we create better tools for educators to equip students with the scientific method. </p>
<p>As we train a new generation of scientists, we must give them the tools to build collaborations and work with massive data. By sharing data openly, we build a worldwide community of practice as we attempt to understand this and other future discoveries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47726/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Hawks is a core scientist on the Rising Star Expedition team and coauthor on the papers describing Homo naledi.</span></em></p>The discovery of Homo naledi has been a social media sensation, recording an extraordinary number of views – more than 170,000 – for a scientific paper.John Hawks, Paleoanthropologist, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/439472015-06-30T16:02:32Z2015-06-30T16:02:32ZDo rats dream of the future?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86550/original/image-20150626-1398-16x9bb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mystic rodent.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/becca02/7717857970/in/photolist-cL13hJ-DkgsK-4t9Gvy-8y2NoW-8xYKL6-4t9GWC-8xYKsp-5XHhN-ppRJir-abgi2d-9fwEUC-9N1Mr8-6ZuqV-dP6BPD-4agY5C-4acUQZ-4agY55-s5k7Z-7iSSL-7dcoq-6qJNMi-dewUvv-C3Fnm-6bE4uC-8Urni-8VWBpJ-6qNZm7-6qNZ5d-6NcToW-6Zuqs-8cCvvp-dmRAvp-4Zjvhs-4amVUE-4ahSqB-4ahSbH-4ahSpT-4amVSw-4amW69-4ahS2x-4amW4Q-4ahSdg-4ahSgK-4amVQE-4ahS66-4ahS8H-4amW3u-4ahSea-4amVJE-4amW59">Starsandspirals</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Rodents, one might guess, live in the present – seeking out the best rewards they can scurry to. Indeed, the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, encapsulated this in his poem, “To a Mouse”, with the lines: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Still, thou art blest compar’d wi’ me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e’e,
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I canna see, I guess an’ fear!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Legend has it that Burns wrote the poem after turning a mouse out of its home when ploughing his fields. He felt pity for it, but also envied the mouse for its inability to worry about what the future might bring. However, it seems Burns may have been wrong. New research published by our research team <a href="http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e06063">in eLife</a> indicates that rodents do in fact appear to simulate the future, and they do so during sleep/rest periods. </p>
<p>We have known since the 1970s than neurons, called “place cells”, in a brain area called the hippocampus <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-rats-in-a-maze-can-teach-us-about-our-sense-of-direction-40779">form an organised map of space</a> through their spatially localised patterns of activity. Because each cell is active in a different part of a space, the population of activity from these cells provides a sort of “you are here on the map” signal to the rest of the brain connected to the hippocampus. Place cells are typically recorded in rats, but <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v425/n6954/abs/nature01964.html">similar patterns have been observed in humans</a>. </p>
<p>One dogma is that place cells can only <a href="http://www.cognitivemap.net">form a map during active physical travel through a space</a>. However, we wondered whether this assumption might be wrong. This was because a recent study found that <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/104/5/1726.short">humans with hippocampal damage struggled to imagine future scenarios</a>. When asked to imagine lying on a beach in a tropical bay, for example, the patients described having great difficulty creating a coherent scene in their mind’s eye. We speculated that if place cells not only map space during physical exploration, but also during mental exploration of a future space, this might underlie why the patients were unable to imagine fictitious places. The patients’ place cells were damaged making them unable to mentally construct imagined places. </p>
<p>To test this hypothesis, we placed rats on a straight track with a T-junction ahead while recording place cells from their hippocampus. Access to the junction – as well as the left and right hand arms beyond it – was prevented by a transparent barrier. One of the arms had food at the end, while the other side was empty. After observing the food the rats were put in a sleep chamber for an hour. Finally, the barrier was removed and the rats were returned to the track and allowed to run across the junction and on to the arms.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86745/original/image-20150629-9059-owxfvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86745/original/image-20150629-9059-owxfvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86745/original/image-20150629-9059-owxfvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86745/original/image-20150629-9059-owxfvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=875&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86745/original/image-20150629-9059-owxfvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86745/original/image-20150629-9059-owxfvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86745/original/image-20150629-9059-owxfvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Brain activity and dreams come together in Inception.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/diraen/5067819300/in/photolist-8HPU7Q-9cmJW3-8jcjP8-e3MZPq-8k67P8-q8etKh-9mGR4S-7Rxaoi-8kWUzs-8prt1T-aqp637-99oDSE-99oDJN-99oDzS-d5kWaS-9UCuaQ-7RxanR-nzJgiS-qBM59a-94yPKi-hHG9PT-8nQCVi-ewos3U-9UpzSf-9mGUR5-4Tg1ZZ-8Zvvcq-9mDKQF-qTct6v-9mDMLn-r7vAUG-r9NS2D-qSnYp6-qSm6j4-8Zz2mF-e9dXLm-e9dZNo-e9dZas-e9e1n9-9mGWtf-poM2bN-8jCwSP-oe4Nf5-bofZL6-8mAe8U-e98mRc-9pVFLn-dc6rfc-fzEvuU-8refE2">Diraen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the rest period, the data showed that the place cells that would later provide an internal map of the food arm were active. Cells representing the empty arm were not activated in this way. More specifically, the map was sequentially activated consistent with trajectories leading to and from the food – what we refer to as “pre-play”. This indicates that the hippocampus was simulating or preparing future paths leading to a desired goal. </p>
<p>So if rats are able to simulate future scenarios when resting in a sleep chamber, does this mean that the rats were dreaming of running to the food during the rest period? The truth is we don’t know. We only know humans dream because we can speak to them about their inner experiences after they wake. </p>
<p>We also don’t know whether the activity recorded in our experiment comes from specific periods of sleep in which dreams in humans tend to be reported. However, the idea that such activity patterns in the hippocampus might underlie the content of dreams <a href="http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v10/n1/abs/nn1825.html">has been speculated on before</a> and this is thought to have influenced the recent film Inception. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/stXhGMVJuqA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Dreaming – and rats (22:05 minutes in)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the future it may be possible to relate the activity of place cells recorded in humans to dream content. However, technical challenges of recording enough cells make this difficult. A more tractable project for future work is to establish whether or not the pre-play is behaviourally important. </p>
<p>We found that the greater the interest each rat showed in the unobtainable food the more pre-play they expressed in their hippocampus. Currently this is based on evidence from just four rats. Future work with greater numbers of rats and future manipulations of the possible options of routes to a goal would help. </p>
<p>Whether rats dream at all remains unclear, but what is clear is that they are capable of processing relevant futures, yet to happen, during their periods of rest. Thus, rats may be more similar to us humans in their capacity to wonder about what the future holds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugo Spiers receives funding from the BBSRC, UK, the Wellcome Trust, UK and the James S. McDonnell Foundation, USA</span></em></p>‘Place cells’ in the hippocampus are thought to guide us through our space but they may play a part in helping us to imagine future scenarios.Hugo Spiers, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Experimental Psychology, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.