Trends in Cognitive Sciences
The neural bases of complex tool use in humans
Section snippets
Early and enduring insights from case studies of brain injury
Until very recently, our understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in representing complex tools and their usage came exclusively from studies of brain-injured patients suffering from apraxia – a disorder of learned, voluntary actions, or skills. Over a century ago, several European neurologists recognized that brain injury could selectively disrupt various processes necessary for skillful behaviors, including tool use 4, 5. Their observations began a tradition of apraxia research in
Distinguishing between conceptual and production systems
From as early as Morlass in 1928, it has been noted that brain damage could selectively impair conceptual knowledge about tools versus the skills necessary for their dexterous usage (cited in [6]). A schematic summarizing what was known about locations of brain lesions associated with conceptual versus production difficulties during the early 20th century is shown in Figure 1.
When asked to pantomime, or in some cases explicitly demonstrate, how a familiar tool is used, patients with conceptual
Representing knowledge of tools and associated actions
The difficulties experienced by Conceptual Apraxics can be interpreted as stemming from a form of semantic memory deficit [10]. Rothi and colleagues have argued that knowledge about actions, including tool use, might be represented in a specialized ‘action semantic system’ [22]. In addition, it has been proposed that the semantic system for action be fractionated further into separate subsystems for knowledge about tools, their functions, or how the appropriate actions associated with their
Representing acquired tool-use skills
As early as 1905 (Liepmann, [17]), it was known that damage to the left PPC could affect the ability to produce skills associated with tools (Figure 1). In the intervening century there have been a variety of attempts to explain this fact [4]. One class of theories posit that Ideomotor Apraxia reflects damage to a more general faculty unique to the left hemisphere, such as the ability to construct symbolic representations (i.e. asymbolia) [48], or to form actions on the basis of objects'
Conclusions
Our understanding of the neural bases of human tool use owes much to the observations of those who have studied behavioral deficits following brain injuries over the past 100 or more years (see also [59], in this issue). Indeed, as observed by early investigators, separate regions in the human left hemisphere are involved in representing conceptual knowledge concerning tools and their associated actions versus the acquired skills involved in their usage (Figure 1). These insights have been
Acknowledgements
Scott H. Johnson-Frey was formerly known as Scott H. Johnson. Preparation of this manuscript was supported by grants from NIMH (#MH002022–02) and the James S. McDonnell Foundation. This manuscript benefited from the constructive criticisms of the anonymous reviewers, and Valerie Gerry.
References (75)
Apraxia and beyond: life and work of Hugo Liepmann
Cortex
(2003)- et al.
Tool use and mechanical problem solving in apraxia
Neuropsychologia
(1998) Cognitive representations of hand posture in ideomotor apraxia
Neuropsychologia
(2003)A selective impairment of hand posture for object utilization in apraxia
Cortex
(1995)Callosal disconnection syndrome in a left-handed patient due to infarction of the total length of the corpus callosum
Neuropsychologia
(1999)A neural basis for the retrieval of conceptual knowledge
Neuropsychologia
(1997)Neural correlates of naming actions and of naming spatial relations
NeuroImage
(2001)Parallel visual motion processing streams for manipulable objects and human movements
Neuron
(2002)Motor and cognitive functions of the ventral premotor cortex
Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.
(2002)- et al.
Representation of manipulable man-made objects in the dorsal stream
NeuroImage
(2000)
Premotor and prefrontal correlates of category-related lexical retrieval
NeuroImage
Selective activation of a parieto-frontal circuit during implicity imagined prehension
Neuroimage
Premotor cortex activation during observation and naming of familiar tools
NeuroImage
Defective pantomime of object use in left brain damage: apraxia or asymbolia?
Neuropsychologia
Actions or hand–object interactions? Human inferior frontal cortex and action observation
Neuron
Tools for the body (schema)
Trends Cogn. Sci.
Thinking ahead: the case for motor imagery in prospective judgments of prehension
Cognition
What's so special about human tool use?
Neuron
Language within our grasp
Trends Neurosci.
Mirror neurons and the simulation theory of mind-reading
Trends Cogn. Sci.
I know what you are doing. a neurophysiological study
Neuron
Neural representation for the perception of the intentionality of actions
Brain Cogn.
Folk Physics For Apes: The Chimpanzee's Theory of How the World Works
The human adaptation for culture
Annu. Rev. Anthropol.
Paleolithic technology and human evolution
Science
Limb apraxia: a look back
Ideational apraxia: a deficit in tool selection and use
Ann. Neurol.
Common considerations in the study of limb, verbal and oral apraxia
Conceptual apraxia in Alzheimer's disease
Brain
Ideational apraxia
Brain
Human cerebral disconnection syndromes
Neurology
Modality-specific and supramodal mechanisms of apraxia
Brain
Cortical mechanisms of human tool use
From ‘acting on’ to ‘acting with’: the functional anatomy of action representation
Naturalistic action and praxis in callosal apraxia
Neurocase
Agnosia and Araxia: Selected Papers of Liepmann, Lange, and Potzl
Cited by (525)
Differential functional reorganization of ventral and dorsal visual pathways following childhood hemispherectomy
2023, Developmental Cognitive NeuroscienceThe body in the world: tools and somato-centric maps in the primate brain
2023, Cognitive Archaeology, Body Cognition, and the Evolution of Visuospatial PerceptionCognitive archaeology, attention, and visual behavior
2023, Cognitive Archaeology, Body Cognition, and the Evolution of Visuospatial PerceptionBody-tool integration: past, present, and future
2023, Cognitive Archaeology, Body Cognition, and the Evolution of Visuospatial Perception