Revue de neuropsychologie
MENUThe multi-faceted nature of pantomime of tool use Volume 9, issue 2, Avril-Mai-Juin 2017
Institut de psychologie,
Université Lyon 2,
5, avenue Pierre-Mendès-France,
69676 Bron cedex, France
Université d’Angers,
49045 Angers, France
75231 Paris cedex 05, France
- Key words: pantomime of tool use, apraxia, technical reasoning, communication skills
- DOI : 10.1684/nrp.2017.0414
- Page(s) : 118-23
- Published in: 2017
Pantomiming the use of familiar tools is a central test in the assessment of apraxia. Indeed, this task is quite sensitive to detect apraxia in patients with left brain damage, particularly when the lesions fall into the parietal lobe. However, surprisingly, the nature of the underlying cognitive mechanisms remains a matter of debate. It has been proposed that activation of manipulation knowledge was a prerequisite to perform pantomime actions. This type of knowledge informs individuals about how to manipulate tools (e.g., knowing that the use of a hammer is associated with oscillations of the elbow). In recent years, for the technical reasoning hypothesis, it has been argued that the ability to pantomime the use of a tool can be explained without invoking activation of manipulation knowledge. The demonstration by pantomime, like any other situation involving tool use, requires mechanical knowledge to create a representation of the action. Thus, pantomimes are not available in long-term memory and they have to be reconstructed de novo. In this review, we attempt to redefine pantomime of tool use activity according to recent results reported in the literature ; and to question the real function of pantomimes. To anticipate our conclusions, pantomime of tool use is a multi-determined task, which requires communication skills. Pantomime of tool use is also a powerful screening task, but its interest might be relatively limited when times come to infer impaired cognitive mechanisms.