Neural Basis for McLuhan?

Boing Boing: Monkeys treat robot arm as bonus appendage

Here's a neat story via Boing Boing that suggests that McLuhan's view of media as extensions of ourselves is literally reflected in the structures of our brain. Monkeys fitted with robotic arms develop the capacity to control the artificial appendage without losing any existing function. In other words, the brain learns to see media as actual extensions of the self.

This view is not dissimilar to my own experiences with media, such as my computer keyboard. I hardly think of my fingers when I'm typing - I think of the words, and my hands just do their thing. Same thing when I'm playing the guitar - I don't think of the guitar as an instrument to be manipulated, it more closely resembles a part of my body, in that most of what happens when I play is unconscious. Once you get the hang of it, playing guitar (or swinging a golf club, or knitting a sweater) can become just as unconscious as bodily functions. The brain doesn't think, "arms, hands, fingers" when you're strumming a chord - it thinks, "C chord", as if the guitar were a part of your body.