TY - JOUR
T1 - Controversies over the mechanisms underlying the crucial role of the left fronto-parietal areas in the representation of tools
AU - Gainotti, Guido
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Anatomo-clinical and neuroimaging data show that the left fronto-parietal areas play an important role in representing tools. As manipulation is an important source of knowledge about tools, it has been assumed that motor activity explains the link between tool knowledge and the left fronto-parietal areas. However, controversies exist over the exact mechanisms underlying this relationship. According to a strong version of the "embodied cognition theory," activation of a tool concept necessarily involves re-enactment of the corresponding kind of action. Impairment of the ability to use tools should, therefore, lead to impairment of tool knowledge. Both the "domains of knowledge hypothesis" and the "sensory-motor model of conceptual knowledge" refute the strong version of the "embodied cognition hypothesis" but acknowledge that manipulation and other action schemata play an important role in our knowledge of tools. The basic difference between these two models is that the former is based on an innate model and the latter holds that the brain's organization of categories is experience dependent. Data supporting and arguing against each of these models are briefly reviewed. In particular, the following lines of research, which argue against the innate nature of the brain's categorical organization, are discussed: (1) the observation that in patients with category-specific disorders the semantic impairment does not respect the boundaries between biological entities and artifact items; (2) data showing that experience-driven neuroplasticity in musicians is not confined to alterations of perceptual and motor maps but also leads to the establishment of higher-level semantic representations for musical instruments; (3) results of experiments using previously unfamiliar materials showing that the history of our sensory-motor experience with an object significantly affects its neural representation. © 2013 Gainotti.
AB - Anatomo-clinical and neuroimaging data show that the left fronto-parietal areas play an important role in representing tools. As manipulation is an important source of knowledge about tools, it has been assumed that motor activity explains the link between tool knowledge and the left fronto-parietal areas. However, controversies exist over the exact mechanisms underlying this relationship. According to a strong version of the "embodied cognition theory," activation of a tool concept necessarily involves re-enactment of the corresponding kind of action. Impairment of the ability to use tools should, therefore, lead to impairment of tool knowledge. Both the "domains of knowledge hypothesis" and the "sensory-motor model of conceptual knowledge" refute the strong version of the "embodied cognition hypothesis" but acknowledge that manipulation and other action schemata play an important role in our knowledge of tools. The basic difference between these two models is that the former is based on an innate model and the latter holds that the brain's organization of categories is experience dependent. Data supporting and arguing against each of these models are briefly reviewed. In particular, the following lines of research, which argue against the innate nature of the brain's categorical organization, are discussed: (1) the observation that in patients with category-specific disorders the semantic impairment does not respect the boundaries between biological entities and artifact items; (2) data showing that experience-driven neuroplasticity in musicians is not confined to alterations of perceptual and motor maps but also leads to the establishment of higher-level semantic representations for musical instruments; (3) results of experiments using previously unfamiliar materials showing that the history of our sensory-motor experience with an object significantly affects its neural representation. © 2013 Gainotti.
KW - Domains of knowledge hypothesis
KW - Embodied cognition theory
KW - Innate theories
KW - Left fronto-parietal areas
KW - Sensory-motor experiences
KW - Sensory-motor model of conceptual knowledge
KW - Tools representation
KW - Domains of knowledge hypothesis
KW - Embodied cognition theory
KW - Innate theories
KW - Left fronto-parietal areas
KW - Sensory-motor experiences
KW - Sensory-motor model of conceptual knowledge
KW - Tools representation
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/163446
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00727
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00727
M3 - Article
VL - 4
SP - 727
EP - 727
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
SN - 1664-1078
ER -