Les séminaires du Lundi accueille Simon THIBAULT, Post-Doctorant Thomas Jefferson University - Philadelphia, USA

Le 23 Septembre de 11h à 12h (Accueil café 15' avant) Salle 9-051 - Bâtiment 9, Campus Marseille St Charles.

Titre: The neurocognitive bases of tool use

Abstract:

In daily life we use multiple tools to achieve actions such as meal preparation. The use of tools depends upon a specific left-lateralized network, and depending upon complexity, may also recruit additional cognitive resources such as attention control.  In this presentation, I will describe a program of research focused on characterizing the neurocognitive bases of tool use using neuropsychology and neuroimaging approaches. First, I will discuss my research demonstrating that the left hemisphere is critical for planning of movements of both the hand and a tool, which is particularly important when those movements do not match. Second, I will describe my work showing that both praxis abilities and attention allocation/control are critical in using tools in more complex naturalistic contexts.  Finally, I will discuss my research showing that tool use actions and language share similar underlying structure and rely upon similar neuroanatomic substrates. Together, this research program provides a description of the neurocognitive factors underlying tool use in simple and more complex contexts, and suggests a number of open questions for future research.