Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-15T14:15:42.391Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Utilization behavior: Clinical and theoretical approaches

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2010

J. BESNARD ,
P. ALLAIN ,
G. AUBIN ,
F. OSIURAK ,
V. CHAUVIRÉ ,
F. ETCHARRY-BOUYX  and
D. LE GALL
J. BESNARD
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Psychology (UPRES EA 2646), University of Angers, France Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, France
P. ALLAIN
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Psychology (UPRES EA 2646), University of Angers, France Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, France
G. AUBIN
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Psychology (UPRES EA 2646), University of Angers, France Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, France Regional Centre for Functional Rehabilitation, Angers, France
F. OSIURAK
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Psychology (UPRES EA 2646), University of Angers, France Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, France
V. CHAUVIRÉ
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Psychology (UPRES EA 2646), University of Angers, France Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, France
F. ETCHARRY-BOUYX
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Psychology (UPRES EA 2646), University of Angers, France Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, France
D. LE GALL*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Psychology (UPRES EA 2646), University of Angers, France Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, France
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: Didier Le Gall, Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, France, 4, rue Larrey - 49033 Angers Cedex 01. E-mail: dilegall@chu-angers.fr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lhermitte (1983) coined the term “utilization behavior” (UB) to define a neurobehavioral syndrome in which the visuo-tactile presentation of objects compels patients to grasp and use them, despite the fact that they have not been instructed to do so. The author suggested that UB was the consequence of frontal lobe damage. Thereafter, Shallice, Burgess, Schon, and Baxter (1989) questioned Lhermitte’s (1983) procedure for eliciting UB, putting forward an alternative research methodology that led to differentiate two forms of UB: “induced” and “incidental.” To date, there has been no direct comparison between these two procedures, nor have any other methodologies been used to explore this clinical sign, which is related to fundamental concepts such as free will and human autonomy. We investigated UB in 70 subjects (25 patients with frontal lobe lesions, 10 patients with posterior brain damage and 35 control subjects) using the methodologies of Lhermitte (1983) and Shallice et al. (1989), as well as an original “verbal generation” procedure. Our results show that the verbal generation procedure reveals UB efficiently and that elicitation of this sign appears to be directly linked to the content of the task. We discuss the interpretation of UB in terms of an executive control deficit. (JINS, 2010, 16, 453–462.)

Keywords

Utilization behaviorEnvironmental dependencyFrontal lobe lesionsExecutive functionsDysexecutive syndromeInhibitory control
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , May 2010 , pp. 453 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Archibald, S.J., Kerns, K.A., Mateer, C.A., & Ismay, L. (2005). Evidence of utilization behaviour in children with ADHD. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 11, 367–375.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Azouvi, P., Didic-Hamel, C.M., Fluchaire, I., Godefroy, O., Hoclet, E., Le Gall, D., et al. . (2001). Evaluation des fonctions exécutives en pratique clinique. Revue de Neuropsychologie, 11, 383–433.Google Scholar
Barsalou, L.W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617–645.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beland, R., & Giroud, F. (1992). Protocole Montréal-Toulouse d’Examen Linguistique de l’Aphasie (Version révisée). Isbergues: L’Ortho-Edition.Google Scholar
Boccardi, E., Della Sala, S., Motto, C., & Spinnler, H. (2002). Utilisation behaviour consequent to bilateral SMA softening. Cortex, 38, 289–308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brazzelli, M., Colombo, N., Della Sala, S., & Spinnler, H. (1994). Spared and impaired cognitive abilities after bilateral frontal damage. Cortex, 30, 27–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bub, D.N., Masson, M.E., & Cree, G.S. (2008). Evocation of functional and volumetric gestural knowledge by objects and words. Cognition, 106, 27–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chartrand, T.L., & Bargh, J.A. (1999). The chameleon effect: The perception-behavior link and social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 893–910.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conchiglia, G., Della Rocca, G., & Grossi, D. (2007). On a peculiar environmental dependency syndrome in a case with fronto-temporal damage: Zelig-like syndrome. Neurocase, 13, 1–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, R.P. (2007). Mechanisms for the generation and regulation of sequential behaviour. Philosophical Psychology, 16, 389–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damasio, H., & Damasio, A.R. (1989). Lesion analysis in neuropsychology. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
De Renzi, E., Cavalleri, F., & Facchini, S. (1996). Imitation and utilisation behaviour. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 61, 396–400.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Derouesné, C., & Boller, F. (2007). Modern neuropsychology in France: François Lhermitte (1921–1998). Cortex, 43, 171–173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edwards, M., Humphreys, G., & Castiello, U. (2003). Motor facilitation following action observation: A behavioural study in prehensile action. Brain and Cognition, 53, 495–502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frith, C.D., Blakemore, S.J., & Wolpert, D.M. (2000). Abnormalities in the awareness and control of action. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 355, 1771–1788.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gibson, J.J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Glover, S., Rosenbaum, D., Graham, J., & Dixon, P. (2004). Grasping the meaning of words. Experimental Brain Research, 154, 103–108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Godefroy, O., & le GREFEX. (2008). Fonctions exécutives et pathologies neurologiques et psychiatriques. Marseille: Solal.Google Scholar
Grafton, S.T., Fadiga, L., Arbib, M.A., & Rizzolatti, G. (1997). Premotor cortex activation during observation and naming of familiar tools. Neuroimage, 6, 231–236.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grèzes, J., & Decety, J. (2001). Functional anatomy of execution, mental simulation, observation, and verb generation of actions: A meta-analysis. Human Brain Mapping, 12, 1–19.3.0.CO;2-V>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grèzes, J., & Decety, J. (2002). Does visual perception of object afford action? Evidence from a neuroimaging study. Neuropsychologia, 40, 212–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grèzes, J., Tucker, M., Armony, J., Ellis, R., & Passingham, E. (2003). Objects automatically potentiate action: An fRMI study of implicit processing. European Journal of Neuroscience, 17, 2735–2740.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hashimoto, R., Yoshida, M., & Tanaka, Y. (1995). Utilization behavior after right thalamic infarction. European Neurology, 35, 58–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoffmann, M.W., & Bill, P.L. (1992). The environmental dependency syndrome, imitation behaviour, and utilisation behaviour as presenting symptoms of bilateral frontal lobe infarction due to moyamoya disease. South African Medical Journal, 81, 271–273.Google ScholarPubMed
Hurley, S. (2008). The shared circuits model (SCM): How control, mirroring and simulation, can enable imitation, deliberation and mindreading. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31, 1–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ishiara, K., Nishino, H., Maki, T., Kawamura, M., & Murayama, S. (2002). Utilization behavior as a white matter disconnection syndrome. Cortex, 38, 379–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, W. (1890). Principles of psychology. New York: Holt.Google Scholar
Jeannerod, M. (1994). The representing brain: Neural correlates of motor intention and imagery. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 17, 187–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeannerod, M. (2001). Neural simulation of action: A unifying mechanism for motor cognition. Neuroimage, 14, 103–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Juillerat Van der Linden, A.C. (2008). Vers une neuropsychologie cognitive des activités de vie quotidienne. In Juillerat Van der Linden, A.C., Aubin, G., Le Gall, D., & Van der Linden, M. (Eds.), Neuropsychologie de la vie quotidienne (pp. 11–41). Marseille: Solal.Google Scholar
Knoblich, G., & Prinz, W. (2005). Linking perception and action: An ideomotor approach. In Freund, H.J., Jeannerod, M., Hallett, M., & Leiguarda, R. (Eds.), Higher-order motor disorders: From Neuroanatomy and neurobiology to clinical neurology (pp. 79–104). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lhermitte, F. (1981). Le “comportement d’utilisation” et ses relations avec les lésions des lobes frontaux. Revue Neurologique, 137, 846–847.Google Scholar
Lhermitte, F. (1983). “Utilization behavior” and its relation to lesions of the frontal lobes. Brain, 106, 237–255.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lhermitte, F. (1984). Autonomie de l’homme et lobe frontal. Bulletin de l’Académie Nationale de Médecine, 168, 235–242.Google Scholar
Lhermitte, F. (1986). Human autonomy and the frontal lobes. Part II: Patient behavior in complex and social situations: The “environmental dependency syndrome”. Annals of Neurology, 19, 335–343.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lhermitte, F., Pillon, B., & Serdaru, M. (1986). Human autonomy and the frontal lobes. Part I: Imitation and utilization behavior: A neuropsychological study of 75 patients. Annals of Neurology, 19, 326–334.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mazaux, J.M., & Orgogozo, J.M. (1981). Boston diagnostic aphasia examination: Echelle Française. Issy-les Moulinaux: Etablissement d’Application Psychotechniques.Google Scholar
Miyake, A., Friedman, N.P., Emerson, M.J., Witzki, A.H., & Howerter, A. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “frontal lobe” tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 49–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norman, D.A., & Shallice, T. (1986). Attention to action: Willed and automatic control of behavior. Center for human information processing (Technical report N°99). In Davidson, R.J., Schwartz, G.E., & Shapiro, D. (Eds.), Consciousness and self-regulation: Advances in brain research. Vol. 4. (pp. 1–18). New-York and London: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Prinz, W. (1997). Perception and action planning. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 9, 129–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabbit, P. (1997). Methodology of frontal and executive function. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Shallice, T., Burgess, P., Schon, P., & Baxter, D. (1989). The origins of utilization behaviour. Brain, 112, 1587–1598.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shapiro, L. (2007). The embodied cognition research programme. Philosophy Compass, 2, 338–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, V.E., Baron-Cohen, S., & Knight, R.T. (1998). Frontal lobes contributions to theory of mind. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 10, 640–656.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tucker, M., & Ellis, R. (2004). Action priming by briefly presented objects. Acta Psychologica, 116, 195–203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed