Abstract
ABSTRACTThe ability to recognize and use a variety of tools is an intriguing human cognitive function. Multiple neuroimaging studies have investigated neural activations with various types of tool-related tasks. In the present paper, we reviewed tool-related neural activations reported in 70 contrasts from 56 neuroimaging studies and performed a series of activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analyses to identify tool-related cortical circuits dedicated either to general tool knowledge or to task-specific processes. The results indicate the following: (a) Common, task-general processing regions for tools are located in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and ventral premotor cortex; and (b) task-specific regions are located in superior parietal lobule (SPL) and dorsal premotor area for imagining/executing actions with tools and in bilateral occipito-temporal cortex for recognizing/naming tools. The roles of these regions in task-general and task-specific activities are discussed with reference to evidence from neuropsychology, experimental psychology and other neuroimaging studies.
Highlights
A remarkable feature of human behaviour is the frequent use of various tools to aid actions
In this study we addressed the following questions: (a) What neural regions are implicated in tool-related cognition representation and processing in a taskgeneral manner?; and (b) which neural structures are task-specific? To our knowledge, none of the previous meta-analyses of tool-relevant neural activity have addressed these questions using the recently developed activation likelihood estimation (ALE) analysis approach (Eickhoff et al, 2009; Eickhoff et al, 2012; Laird et al, 2005; Turkeltaub et al, 2011)
The papers were further examined in terms of the following inclusion and exclusion criteria: (a) The studies were published in peer-reviewed journals between 1995 and 2014; (b) the studies reported data obtained via functional neuroimaging with neurologically intact participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET); (c) one or more conditions reported in the study involved the presentation of familiar tools in the visual domain; (d) the studies reported the coordinates of the local maxima under the tool-presentation condition in either Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space (Collins, Neelin, Peters, & Evans, 1994; Evans et al, 1993) or Talairach space (Talairach & Tournoux, 1988); (e) the studies did not focus on sex differences, development, aging, neurological disorders, or other subject-oriented factors
Summary
A remarkable feature of human behaviour is the frequent use of various tools to aid actions. The number of objects with which we interact in daily life undoubtedly far exceeds that of other species. We do not make use of nearby available objects. We store conceptual and linguistic knowledge about frequently used objects for their efficient use. In the physical absence of tools, we can borrow the appropriate tool by referring to it by name. Such stable interactions with objects in everyday life could not have emerged if we had no conceptual, linguistic, or practical knowledge about the objects we frequently use. We do not fully understand how knowledge and processes related to tools are implemented in our cognitive system or their neural basis
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