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Revue de neuropsychologie

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Neurocognitive bases of tool use Volume 8, issue 2, Avril-Mai-Juin 2016

Authors
1 Laboratoire d’étude des mécanismes cognitifs (EA 3082),
Université de Lyon, Institut de psychologie,
5, avenue Pierre-Mendès-France,
69676 Bron cedex, France
2 Institut universitaire de France,
1, rue Descartes,
75231 Paris cedex 05, France
3 Laboratoire de psychologie des Pays-de-la-Loire (EA 4638),
Université d’Angers,
Maison de la recherche Germaine-Tillion,
5 bis, boulevard Lavoisier,
49045 Angers cedex 1, France
4 Unité de neuropsychologie,
Département de neurologie,
Centre hospitalier universitaire d’Angers,
4, rue Larrey 49933 Angers, France
* Correspondance

Tool use is a defining feature of human species. So, the issue of the underlying neurocognitive bases should be at the heart of psychologists’ and neuroscientists’ concerns. Yet, since the beginning of scientific psychology in the late 20th century, this issue has received very little interest. One potential reason for this lack of interest is the profound belief that tool use is first and foremost based on sensorimotor knowledge about how to use tools, as if tool use did not require any intellectual or reasoning skills, but only the hands. This belief has inspired, and still does, the major neuropsychological models of apraxia of tool use. This mini-review aims to describe the main recent advances in psychology and cognitive neurosciences that have contributed to revise the idea that manipulation is central to tool use, and have led to the formulation of new theoretical models suggesting that specific reasoning skills are involved in tool use. More specifically, these specific reasoning skills might be the cognitive bases for the use of both familiar and novel tools, and might be located within the left inferior parietal cortex, and particularly the anterior portion of the left supramarginal gyrus, a brain area that does not exist in nonhuman primates.