Brozzoli Claudio, Roy Alice C, Lidborg Linda H, Lövdén Martin
Integrative Multisensory Perception Action & Cognition Team (ImpAct), Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM U1028, CNRS U5292, Lyon, France.
University of Lyon, Lyon, France.
Front Psychol. 2019 Jul 16;10:1639. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01639. eCollection 2019.
Different disciplines converge to trace language evolution from motor skills. The human ability to use tools has been advocated as a fundamental step toward the emergence of linguistic processes in the brain. Neuropsychological and neuroimaging research has established that linguistic functions and tool-use are mediated by partially overlapping brain networks. Yet, scholars still theoretically debate whether the relationship between tool-use and language is contingent or functionally relevant, since empirical evidence is critically missing. Here, we measured both linguistic production and tool-use abilities in the same participants, as well as manual and linguistic motor skills. A path analysis ruling out unspecific contributions from manual or linguistic motor skills, showed that motor proficiency using a tool lawfully predicts differences in individual linguistic production. In addition, more complex tool-use reveals stronger association between linguistic production and tool mastery. These findings establish the existence of shared cognitive processes between tool-use and language.
不同学科相互融合，从运动技能来追溯语言的演变。人类使用工具的能力被视为大脑中语言过程出现的一个基本步骤。神经心理学和神经影像学研究已证实，语言功能和工具使用由部分重叠的脑网络介导。然而，由于关键的实证证据缺失，学者们在理论上仍在争论工具使用与语言之间的关系是偶然的还是功能相关的。在这里，我们对同一批参与者的语言生成能力、工具使用能力以及手动和语言运动技能进行了测量。一项排除了手动或语言运动技能非特定影响的路径分析表明，合法使用工具的运动熟练度能够预测个体语言生成的差异。此外，更复杂的工具使用揭示了语言生成与工具掌握之间更强的关联。这些发现证实了工具使用和语言之间存在共享的认知过程。
