1
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Garcea FE, Buxbaum LJ. Mechanisms and neuroanatomy of response selection in tool and non-tool action tasks: Evidence from left-hemisphere stroke. Cortex 2023; 167:335-350. [PMID: 37598647 PMCID: PMC10543550 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.06.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2022] [Revised: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 06/18/2023] [Indexed: 08/22/2023]
Abstract
The ability to select between potential actions is central to the complex process of tool use. After left hemisphere stroke, individuals with limb apraxia make more hand action errors when gesturing the use of tools with conflicting hand actions for grasping-to-move and use (e.g., screwdriver) relative to tools that are grasped-to-move and used with the same hand action (e.g., hammer). Prior research indicates that this grasp-use interference effect is driven by abnormalities in the competitive action selection process. The goal of this project was to determine whether common mechanisms and neural substrates support the competitive selection of task-appropriate responses in both tool and non-tool domains. If so, the grasp-use interference effect in a tool use gesturing task should be correlated with response interference effects in the classic Eriksen flanker and Simon tasks, and at least partly overlapping neural regions should subserve the 3 tasks. Sixty-four left hemisphere stroke survivors (33 with apraxia) participated in the tool- and non-tool interference tasks and underwent T1 anatomical MRI. There were robust grasp-use interference effects (grasp-use conflict test) and response interference effects (Eriksen flanker and Simon tasks), but these effects were not correlated. Lesion-symptom mapping analyses showed that lesions to the left inferior parietal lobule, ventral premotor cortex, and insula were associated with grasp-use interference. Lesions to the left inferior parietal lobule, postcentral gyrus, insula, caudate, and putamen were associated with response interference in the Eriksen flanker task. Lesions to the left caudate and putamen were also associated with response interference in the Simon task. Our results suggest that the selection of hand posture for tool use is mediated by distinct cognitive mechanisms and partly distinct neuroanatomic substrates from those mapping a stimulus to an appropriate motor response in non-tool domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank E Garcea
- Department of Neurosurgery, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA; Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA; Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA.
| | - Laurel J Buxbaum
- Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Elkins Park, PA, USA; Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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2
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Merck C, Noël A, Jamet E, Robert M, Salmon A, Belliard S, Kalénine S. Nonspecific Effects of Normal Aging on Taxonomic and Thematic Semantic Processing. Exp Aging Res 2023; 49:18-40. [PMID: 35234091 DOI: 10.1080/0361073x.2022.2046948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE This study aimed to assess the effect of normal aging on the processing of taxonomic and thematic semantic relations. METHOD We used the Visual-World-Paradigm coupled with eye-movement recording. We compared performance of healthy younger and older adults on a word-to-picture matching task in which participants had to identify each target among semantically related (taxonomic or thematic) and unrelated distractors. RESULTS Younger and older participants exhibited similar patterns of gaze fixations in the two semantic conditions. The effect of aging took the form of an overall reduction in sensitivity to semantic competitors, with no difference between the taxonomic and thematic conditions. Moreover, comparison of the proportions of fixations between the younger and older participants indicated that targets were identified equally quickly in both age groups. This was not the case when mouse-click reaction times were analyzed. CONCLUSIONS Findings argue in favor of nonspecific effects of normal aging on semantic processing that similarly affect taxonomic and thematic processing. There are important clinical implications, as pathological aging has been repeatedly shown to selectively affect either taxonomic or thematic relations. Measuring eye-movements in a semantic task is also an interesting approach in the elderly, as these seem to be less impacted by aging than other motor responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine Merck
- Service de Neurologie, Cmrr Haute Bretagne, Chu Pontchaillou, Rennes, France.,Normandie Univ, Unicaen, Psl Research University, Ephe, Inserm, U1077, Chu de Caen, Neuropsychologie Et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
| | - Audrey Noël
- Univ Rennes, LP3C (Psychology of Cognition, Behavior & Communication Laboratory) - Ea 1285, Rennes, France
| | - Eric Jamet
- Univ Rennes, LP3C (Psychology of Cognition, Behavior & Communication Laboratory) - Ea 1285, Rennes, France
| | - Maxime Robert
- Univ Rennes, LP3C (Psychology of Cognition, Behavior & Communication Laboratory) - Ea 1285, Rennes, France
| | - Anne Salmon
- Service de Neurologie, Cmrr Haute Bretagne, Chu Pontchaillou, Rennes, France
| | - Serge Belliard
- Service de Neurologie, Cmrr Haute Bretagne, Chu Pontchaillou, Rennes, France.,Normandie Univ, Unicaen, Psl Research University, Ephe, Inserm, U1077, Chu de Caen, Neuropsychologie Et Imagerie de la Mémoire Humaine, Caen, France
| | - Solène Kalénine
- Univ. Lille, Cnrs, Chu Lille, Umr 9193 - SCALab - Sciences Cognitives Et Sciences Affectives, Lille, France
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3
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Hand constraint reduces brain activity and affects the speed of verbal responses on semantic tasks. Sci Rep 2022; 12:13545. [PMID: 35941140 PMCID: PMC9360433 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-17702-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 07/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
According to the theory of embodied cognition, semantic processing is closely coupled with body movements. For example, constraining hand movements inhibits memory for objects that can be manipulated with the hands. However, it has not been confirmed whether body constraint reduces brain activity related to semantics. We measured the effect of hand constraint on semantic processing in the parietal lobe using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. A pair of words representing the names of hand-manipulable (e.g., cup or pencil) or nonmanipulable (e.g., windmill or fountain) objects were presented, and participants were asked to identify which object was larger. The reaction time (RT) in the judgment task and the activation of the left intraparietal sulcus (LIPS) and left inferior parietal lobule (LIPL), including the supramarginal gyrus and angular gyrus, were analyzed. We found that constraint of hand movement suppressed brain activity in the LIPS toward hand-manipulable objects and affected RT in the size judgment task. These results indicate that body constraint reduces the activity of brain regions involved in semantics. Hand constraint might inhibit motor simulation, which, in turn, would inhibit body-related semantic processing.
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4
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Davis CP, Eigsti IM, Healy R, Joergensen GH, Yee E. Autism-spectrum traits in neurotypicals predict the embodiment of manipulation knowledge about object concepts: Evidence from eyetracking. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0268069. [PMID: 35877618 PMCID: PMC9312413 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2021] [Accepted: 04/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Sensorimotor-based theories of cognition predict that even subtle developmental motor differences, such as those characterizing autism spectrum disorder (ASD), impact how we represent the meaning of manipulable objects (e.g., faucet). Here, we test 85 neurotypical participants, who varied widely on the Adult Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), a measure intended to capture variability in ASD characteristics in the general adult population (participant scores were all below the clinical threshold for autism). Participants completed a visual world eyetracking task designed to assess the activation of conceptual representations of manipulable objects. Participants heard words referring to manually manipulable objects (e.g., faucet) while we recorded their eye movements to arrays of four objects: the named object, a related object typically manipulated similarly (e.g., jar), and two unrelated objects. Consistent with prior work, we observed more looks to the related object than to the unrelated ones (i.e., a manipulation-relatedness effect). This effect likely reflects the overlapping conceptual representations of objects sharing manipulation characteristics (e.g., faucet and jar), due to embodied sensorimotor properties being part of their representations. Critically, we observed—among typically developed young adults—that as AQ scores increased, manipulation-relatedness effects decreased. In contrast, in a visual control condition, in which a target object was paired with related objects of a similar shape (e.g., snake and rope), relatedness effects increased with AQ scores. The results show that AQ scores can predict variation in how object-concept representations are activated for typically developed individuals. More speculatively, they are consistent with the hypothesis that in individuals with ASD, differences in object-concept representations emerge at least in part via differences in sensorimotor experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles P. Davis
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America
- CT Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Inge-Marie Eigsti
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America
- CT Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America
| | - Roisin Healy
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America
| | - Gitte H. Joergensen
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America
- CT Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America
| | - Eiling Yee
- Department of Psychological Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America
- CT Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America
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5
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Stoll H, de Wit MM, Middleton EL, Buxbaum LJ. Treating limb apraxia via action semantics: a preliminary study. Neuropsychol Rehabil 2021; 31:1145-1162. [PMID: 32429797 PMCID: PMC7674248 DOI: 10.1080/09602011.2020.1762672] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2019] [Accepted: 04/15/2020] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Limb apraxia is evident in approximately 50% of patients after left hemisphere cerebral vascular accident (LCVA) and increases disability and caregiver dependence. Individuals with apraxia exhibit abnormalities in spatio-temporal aspects of gesture production and/or in knowledge of tool-related actions (action semantics). This preliminary study of three LCVA participants aimed to (i) explore the efficacy of a novel Action Network Treatment (ANT) that focused on improving the semantic association between tool actions and other types of tool knowledge, an intervention inspired by successful semantic network treatments in aphasia (e.g., Edmonds et al., 2009), and (ii) explore whether there are individuals with apraxia who benefit from ANT relative to a version of a comparatively well-studied existing apraxia treatment (Smania et al., 2006; Smania et al., 2000) that shapes gesture via focus on practicing the spatio-temporal aspects of gesture production (Tool Use Treatment or TUT). One participant demonstrated treatment benefits from both ANT and TUT, while another only benefited from TUT. These findings indicate that our novel semantic network strengthening approach to gesture training may be efficacious in at least some individuals with apraxia, and provide a foundation for future study of the characteristics of people with apraxia who benefit from each approach.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Laurel J. Buxbaum
- Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Elkins Park, PA
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA
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6
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Zhang Z, Zeidman P, Nelissen N, Filippini N, Diedrichsen J, Bracci S, Friston K, Rounis E. Neural Correlates of Hand-Object Congruency Effects during Action Planning. J Cogn Neurosci 2021; 33:1487-1503. [PMID: 34496373 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01728] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Selecting hand actions to manipulate an object is affected both by perceptual factors and by action goals. Affordances may contribute to "stimulus-response" congruency effects driven by habitual actions to an object. In previous studies, we have demonstrated an influence of the congruency between hand and object orientations on response times when reaching to turn an object, such as a cup. In this study, we investigated how the representation of hand postures triggered by planning to turn a cup was influenced by this congruency effect, in an fMRI scanning environment. Healthy participants were asked to reach and turn a real cup that was placed in front of them either in an upright orientation or upside-down. They were instructed to use a hand orientation that was either congruent or incongruent with the cup orientation. As expected, the motor responses were faster when the hand and cup orientations were congruent. There was increased activity in a network of brain regions involving object-directed actions during action planning, which included bilateral primary and extrastriate visual, medial, and superior temporal areas, as well as superior parietal, primary motor, and premotor areas in the left hemisphere. Specific activation of the dorsal premotor cortex was associated with hand-object orientation congruency during planning and prior to any action taking place. Activity in that area and its connectivity with the lateral occipito-temporal cortex increased when planning incongruent (goal-directed) actions. The increased activity in premotor areas in trials where the orientation of the hand was incongruent to that of the object suggests a role in eliciting competing representations specified by hand postures in lateral occipito-temporal cortex.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Elisabeth Rounis
- University of Oxford.,West Middlesex University Hospital, Isleworth
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7
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Pizzamiglio G, Zhang Z, Duta M, Rounis E. Factors Influencing Manipulation of a Familiar Object in Patients With Limb Apraxia After Stroke. Front Hum Neurosci 2020; 13:465. [PMID: 32116596 PMCID: PMC7026485 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2019.00465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2019] [Accepted: 12/19/2019] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have shown that hand actions to visual objects are affected both by perceptual factors and by action goals. Our aim was to study how these processes affected hand actions in chronic stroke patients, based on whether they had limb apraxia. Twenty-two left hemisphere, chronic stroke patients were measured on neuropsychological tasks of limb apraxia, which was identified in a subgroup of 10 patients. All patients underwent testing on a separate task of making simple reach and grasp actions to a cup. Their performance was compared to a group of 18 healthy age-matched volunteers. Participants were instructed to grasp the top or bottom of a cup to either lift or turn it over so as to end with a hand position that was either comfortable or uncomfortable. This task tested the influence of the compatibility of hand–cup orientation, as well as goals driven by the end-state comfort of the hand, on action selection for object manipulation. Participants’ performance was measured in terms of error rates, and speed of initiation and reaching (movement time) to the object. The patients’ performance was significantly delayed, and error rates increased when reaching to grasp a cup under conditions of poor compatibility and end-state comfort. The subgroup of patients with apraxia showed a decreased influence of compatibility of hand interaction with the cup, with increased error rates and delayed response times, compared to patients with no apraxia and healthy volunteers. This is despite the fact they did not display significant deficits on neuropsychological tasks of real object use. The study shows that patients with apraxia have difficulties in selecting elements of object-directed actions, pertaining to both habitual and goal-directed factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gloria Pizzamiglio
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Zuo Zhang
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Mihaela Duta
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Elisabeth Rounis
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- *Correspondence: Elisabeth Rounis,
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8
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What first drives visual attention during the recognition of object-directed actions? The role of kinematics and goal information. Atten Percept Psychophys 2020; 81:2400-2409. [PMID: 31292941 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-019-01784-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
The recognition of others' object-directed actions is known to involve the decoding of both the visual kinematics of the action and the action goal. Yet whether action recognition is first guided by the processing of visual kinematics or by a prediction about the goal of the actor remains debated. In order to provide experimental evidence to this issue, the present study aimed at investigating whether visual attention would be preferentially captured by visual kinematics or by action goal information when processing others' actions. In a visual search task, participants were asked to find correct actions (e.g., drinking from glass) among distractor actions. Distractors actions contained grip and/or goal violations and could therefore share the correct goal and/or the correct grip with the target. The time course of fixation proportion on each distractor action has been taken as an indicator of visual attention allocation. Results show that visual attention is first captured by the distractor action with similar goal. Then the withdrawal of visual attention from the action distractor with similar goal suggests a later attentional capture by the action distractor with similar grip. Overall, results are in line with predictive approaches of action understanding, which assume that observers first make a prediction about the actor's goal before verifying this prediction using the visual kinematics of the action.
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9
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Garcea FE, Stoll H, Buxbaum LJ. Reduced competition between tool action neighbors in left hemisphere stroke. Cortex 2019; 120:269-283. [PMID: 31352237 PMCID: PMC6951425 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.05.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2019] [Revised: 04/21/2019] [Accepted: 05/22/2019] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
When pantomiming the use of tools, patients with limb apraxia after left hemisphere stroke (LCVA) produce more spatiotemporal hand action errors with tools associated with conflicting actions for use versus grasp-to-pick-up (e.g., corkscrew) than tools having a single action for both use and grasp (e.g., hammer). There are two possible accounts for this pattern of results. Reduced performance with 'conflict' tools may simply reflect weakened automaticity of use action activation, which is evident only when the use and grasp actions are not redundant. Alternatively, poor use performance may reflect a reduced ability of appropriate tool use actions to compete with task-inappropriate action representations. To address this issue, we developed a Stroop-like experiment in which 21 LCVA and 8 neurotypical participants performed pantomime actions in blocks containing two tools that were similar ("neighbors") in terms of hand action or function, or were unrelated on either dimension. In a congruent condition, they pantomimed the use action associated with the visually presented tool, whereas in an incongruent condition, they pantomimed the use action for the other tool in the block. Relative to controls and other task conditions, LCVA participants showed reductions in hand action errors in incongruent relative to congruent action trials; furthermore, the degree of reduction in this incongruence effect was related to the participants' susceptibility to grasp-on-use conflict in a separate test of pantomime to the sight of tools. Support vector regression lesion-symptom mapping analyses identified the left inferior frontal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and superior longitudinal fasciculus as core neuroanatomical sites associated with abnormal performance. Collectively, the results indicate that weakened activation of tool use actions in limb apraxia gives rise to reduced ability of these actions to compete for task-appropriate selection when competition arises within single tools (grasp-on-use conflict) as well as between two tools (reduced neighborhood effects).
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank E Garcea
- Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Elkins Park, PA, USA; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
| | - Harrison Stoll
- Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Elkins Park, PA, USA
| | - Laurel J Buxbaum
- Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Elkins Park, PA, USA; Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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10
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How words get meaning: The neural processing of novel object names after sensorimotor training. Neuroimage 2019; 197:284-294. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.04.069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2018] [Revised: 04/13/2019] [Accepted: 04/25/2019] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
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11
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Howard CM, Smith LL, Coslett HB, Buxbaum LJ. The role of conflict, feedback, and action comprehension in monitoring of action errors: Evidence for internal and external routes. Cortex 2019; 115:184-200. [PMID: 30831536 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.01.032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2018] [Revised: 12/10/2018] [Accepted: 01/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
The mechanisms and brain regions underlying error monitoring in complex action are poorly understood, yet errors and impaired error correction in these tasks are hallmarks of apraxia, a common disorder associated with left hemisphere stroke. Accounts of monitoring of language posit an internal route by which production planning or competition between candidate representations provide predictive signals that monitoring is required to prevent error, and an external route in which output is monitored using the comprehension system. Abnormal reliance on the external route has been associated with damage to brain regions critical for sensory-motor transformation and a pattern of gradual error 'clean-up' called conduite d'approche (CD). Action pantomime data from 67 participants with left hemisphere stroke were consistent with versions of internal route theories positing that competition signals monitoring requirements. Support Vector Regression Lesion Symptom Mapping (SVR-LSM) showed that lesions in the inferior parietal, posterior temporal, and arcuate fasciculus/superior longitudinal fasciculus predicted action conduite d'approche, overlapping the regions previously observed in the language domain. A second experiment with 12 patients who produced substantial action CD assessed whether factors impacting the internal route (action production ability, competition) versus external route (vision of produced actions, action comprehension) influenced correction attempts. In these 'high CD' patients, vision of produced actions and integrity of gesture comprehension interacted to determine successful error correction, supporting external route theories. Viewed together, these and other data suggest that skilled actions are monitored both by an internal route in which conflict aids in detection and correction of errors during production planning, and an external route that detects mismatches between produced actions and stored knowledge of action appearance. The parallels between language and action monitoring mechanisms and neuroanatomical networks pave the way for further exploration of common and distinct processes across these domains.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Louisa L Smith
- Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Elkins Park, PA, USA
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12
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Left inferior parietal and posterior temporal cortices mediate the effect of action observation on semantic processing of objects: evidence from rTMS. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2018; 84:1006-1019. [DOI: 10.1007/s00426-018-1117-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2018] [Accepted: 10/31/2018] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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13
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Bechtold L, Ghio M, Lange J, Bellebaum C. Event-related desynchronization of mu and beta oscillations during the processing of novel tool names. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2018; 177-178:44-55. [PMID: 29421271 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2018.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2017] [Revised: 12/22/2017] [Accepted: 01/15/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
According to the embodied cognition framework, the formation of conceptual representations integrates the type of experience during learning. In this electroencephalographic study, we applied a linguistic variant of a training paradigm, in which participants learned to associate novel names to novel tools while either manipulating or visually exploring them. The analysis focused on event-related desynchronization (ERD) of oscillations in the mu and beta frequency range, which reflects activation of sensorimotor brain areas. After three training sessions, processing names of manipulated tools elicited a stronger ERD of the beta (18-25 Hz, 140-260 ms) and the lower mu rhythm (8-10 Hz, 320-440 ms) than processing names of visually explored tools, reflecting a possible reactivation of experiential sensorimotor information. Given the unexpected result that familiarized pseudo-words elicited an ERD comparable to names of manipulated tools, our findings could reflect a suppression of sensorimotor activity during the processing of objects with exclusively visual features.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Bechtold
- Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany.
| | - Marta Ghio
- Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Joachim Lange
- Institute of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
| | - Christian Bellebaum
- Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
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14
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Lee CL, Huang HW, Federmeier KD, Buxbaum LJ. Sensory and semantic activations evoked by action attributes of manipulable objects: Evidence from ERPs. Neuroimage 2017; 167:331-341. [PMID: 29183777 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.11.045] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2017] [Revised: 10/26/2017] [Accepted: 11/21/2017] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
"Two route" theories of object-related action processing posit different temporal activation profiles of grasp-to-move actions (rapidly evoked based on object structure) versus skilled use actions (more slowly activated based on semantic knowledge). We capitalized on the exquisite temporal resolution and multidimensionality of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to directly test this hypothesis. Participants viewed manipulable objects (e.g., calculator) preceded by objects sharing either "grasp", "use", or no action attributes (e.g., bar of soap, keyboard, earring, respectively), as well as by action-unrelated but taxonomically-related objects (e.g., abacus); participants judged whether the two objects were related. The results showed more positive responses to "grasp-to-move" primed objects than "skilled use" primed objects or unprimed objects starting in the P1 (0-150 ms) time window and continuing onto the subsequent N1 and P2 components (150-300 ms), suggesting that only "grasp-to-move", but not "skilled use", actions may facilitate visual attention to object attributes. Furthermore, reliably reduced N400s (300-500 ms), an index of semantic processing, were observed to taxonomically primed and "skilled use" primed objects relative to unprimed objects, suggesting that "skilled use" action attributes are a component of distributed, multimodal semantic representations of objects. Together, our findings provide evidence supporting two-route theories by demonstrating that "grasp-to-move" and "skilled use" actions impact different aspects of object processing and highlight the relationship of "skilled use" information to other aspects of semantic memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chia-Lin Lee
- Graduate Institute of Linguistics, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, ROC; Department of Psychology, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, ROC; Graduate Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, ROC; Neurobiology and Cognitive Neuroscience Center, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, ROC; Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Elkins Park, PA, USA.
| | - Hsu-Wen Huang
- Department of Linguistics and Translation, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, USA
| | - Kara D Federmeier
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, USA; Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois, USA; The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, USA
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15
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Buxbaum LJ. Learning, remembering, and predicting how to use tools: Distributed neurocognitive mechanisms: Comment on Osiurak and Badets (2016). Psychol Rev 2017; 124:346-360. [PMID: 28358565 DOI: 10.1037/rev0000051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The reasoning-based approach championed by Francois Osiurak and Arnaud Badets (Osiurak & Badets, 2016) denies the existence of sensory-motor memories of tool use except in limited circumstances, and suggests instead that most tool use is subserved solely by online technical reasoning about tool properties. In this commentary, I highlight the strengths and limitations of the reasoning-based approach and review a number of lines of evidence that manipulation knowledge is in fact used in tool action tasks. In addition, I present a "two route" neurocognitive model of tool use called the "Two Action Systems Plus (2AS+)" framework that posits a complementary role for online and stored information and specifies the neurocognitive substrates of task-relevant action selection. This framework, unlike the reasoning based approach, has the potential to integrate the existing psychological and functional neuroanatomic data in the tool use domain. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Mack JE, Wei AZS, Gutierrez S, Thompson CK. Tracking sentence comprehension: Test-retest reliability in people with aphasia and unimpaired adults. JOURNAL OF NEUROLINGUISTICS 2016; 40:98-111. [PMID: 27867260 PMCID: PMC5113948 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneuroling.2016.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Visual-world eyetracking is increasingly used to investigate online language processing in normal and language impaired listeners. Tracking changes in eye movements over time also may be useful for indexing language recovery in those with language impairments. Therefore, it is critical to determine the test-retest reliability of results obtained using this method. METHODS Unimpaired young adults and people with aphasia took part in two eyetracking sessions spaced about one week apart. In each session, participants completed a sentence-picture matching task in which they listened to active and passive sentences (e.g., The [N1+Auxwoman was] [Vvisiting/visited] [NP/PP2(by) the man]) and selected between two pictures with reversed thematic roles. We used intraclass correlations (ICCs) to examine the test-retest reliability of response measures (accuracy, reaction time (RT)) and online eye movements (i.e., the likelihood of fixating the target picture in each region of the sentence) in each participant group. RESULTS In the unimpaired adults, accuracy was at ceiling (thus ICCs were not computed), with moderate ICCs for RT (i.e., 0.4 - 0.58) for passive sentences and low (<0.4) for actives. In individuals with aphasia, test-retest reliability was strong (0.590.75) for RT for both sentence types. Similarly, for the unimpaired listeners, reliability of eye movements was moderate for passive sentences (NP/PP2 region) and low in all regions for active sentences. But, for the aphasic participant group, eye movement reliability was excellent for passive sentences (in the first second after sentence end) and strong for active sentences (V and NP/PP2 regions). CONCLUSION Results indicated moderate-to-low reliability for unimpaired listeners; however, reliable eye movement patterns were detected for processes specific to passive sentences (e.g., thematic reanalysis). In contrast, individuals with aphasia exhibited strong and stable performance across sentence types in response measures and online eye movements. These findings indicate that visual-world eyetracking provides a reliable measure of online sentence comprehension, and thus may be useful for investigating sentence processing changes over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer E Mack
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University
| | - Andrew Zu-Sern Wei
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University
| | | | - Cynthia K Thompson
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University; Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, Northwestern University; Department of Neurology, Northwestern University
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Abstract
At first glance, conceptual representations (e.g., our internal notion of the object "lemon") seem static; we have the impression that there is something that the concept lemon "means" (a sour, yellow, football-shaped citrus fruit) and that this meaning does not vary. Research in semantic memory has traditionally taken this "static" perspective. Consequently, only effects demonstrated across a variety of contexts have typically been considered informative regarding the architecture of the semantic system. In this review, we take the opposite approach: We review instances of context-dependent conceptual activation at many different timescales-from long-term experience, to recent experience, to the current task goals, to the unfolding process of conceptual activation itself-and suggest that the pervasive effects of context across all of these timescales indicate that rather than being static, conceptual representations are constantly changing and are inextricably linked to their contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eiling Yee
- Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, Storrs, CT, 06269-1020, USA.
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain & Language, Donostia, Spain.
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Evans C, Edwards MG, Taylor LJ, Ietswaart M. Perceptual decisions regarding object manipulation are selectively impaired in apraxia or when tDCS is applied over the left IPL. Neuropsychologia 2016; 86:153-66. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.04.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2015] [Revised: 04/06/2016] [Accepted: 04/20/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Evans C, Edwards MG, Taylor LJ, Ietswaart M. Impaired Communication Between the Dorsal and Ventral Stream: Indications from Apraxia. Front Hum Neurosci 2016; 10:8. [PMID: 26869897 PMCID: PMC4733863 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2016.00008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2015] [Accepted: 01/11/2016] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Patients with apraxia perform poorly when demonstrating how an object is used, particularly when pantomiming the action. However, these patients are able to accurately identify, and to pick up and move objects, demonstrating intact ventral and dorsal stream visuomotor processing. Appropriate object manipulation for skilled use is thought to rely on integration of known and visible object properties associated with “ventro-dorsal” stream neural processes. In apraxia, it has been suggested that stored object knowledge from the ventral stream may be less readily available to incorporate into the action plan, leading to an over-reliance on the objects’ visual affordances in object-directed motor behavior. The current study examined grasping performance in left hemisphere stroke patients with (N = 3) and without (N = 9) apraxia, and in age-matched healthy control participants (N = 14), where participants repeatedly grasped novel cylindrical objects of varying weight distribution. Across two conditions, object weight distribution was indicated by either a memory-associated cue (object color) or visual-spatial cue (visible dot over the weighted end). Participants were required to incorporate object-weight associations to effectively grasp and balance each object. Control groups appropriately adjusted their grasp according to each object’s weight distribution across each condition, whereas throughout the task two of the three apraxic patients performed poorly on both the memory-associated and visual-spatial cue conditions. A third apraxic patient seemed to compensate for these difficulties but still performed differently to control groups. Patients with apraxia performed normally on the neutral control condition when grasping the evenly weighted version. The pattern of behavior in apraxic patients suggests impaired integration of visible and known object properties attributed to the ventro-dorsal stream: in learning to grasp the weighted object accurately, apraxic patients applied neither pure knowledge-based information (the memory-associated condition) nor higher-level information given in the visual-spatial cue condition. Disruption to ventro-dorsal stream predicts that apraxic patients will have difficulty learning to manipulate new objects on the basis of information other than low-level visual cues such as shape and size.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carys Evans
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Department of Psychology, Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Martin G Edwards
- Institute of Research in the Psychological Sciences, Université catholique de Louvain Louvain-le-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Lawrence J Taylor
- Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Department of Psychology, Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
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Impact of action primes on implicit processing of thematic and functional similarity relations: evidence from eye-tracking. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2015; 80:566-80. [PMID: 26077343 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-015-0674-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2015] [Accepted: 05/23/2015] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
The aim of this study was to specify the role of action representations in thematic and functional similarity relations between manipulable artifact objects. Recent behavioral and neurophysiological evidence indicates that while they are all relevant for manipulable artifact concepts, semantic relations based on thematic (e.g., saw-wood), specific function similarity (e.g., saw-axe), and general function similarity (e.g., saw-knife) are differently processed, and may relate to different levels of action representation. Point-light displays of object-related actions previously encoded at the gesture level (e.g., "sawing") or at the higher level of action representation (e.g., "cutting") were used as primes before participants identified target objects (e.g., saw) among semantically related and unrelated distractors (e.g., wood, feather, piano). Analysis of eye movements on the different objects during target identification informed about the amplitude and the timing of implicit activation of the different semantic relations. Results showed that action prime encoding impacted the processing of thematic relations, but not that of functional similarity relations. Semantic competition with thematic distractors was greater and earlier following action primes encoded at the gesture level compared to action primes encoded at higher level. As a whole, these findings highlight the direct influence of action representations on thematic relation processing, and suggest that thematic relations involve gesture-level representations rather than intention-level representations.
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Vanbellingen T, Schumacher R, Eggenberger N, Hopfner S, Cazzoli D, Preisig BC, Bertschi M, Nyffeler T, Gutbrod K, Bassetti CL, Bohlhalter S, Müri RM. Different visual exploration of tool-related gestures in left hemisphere brain damaged patients is associated with poor gestural imitation. Neuropsychologia 2015; 71:158-64. [PMID: 25841335 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2014] [Revised: 02/09/2015] [Accepted: 04/01/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
According to the direct matching hypothesis, perceived movements automatically activate existing motor components through matching of the perceived gesture and its execution. The aim of the present study was to test the direct matching hypothesis by assessing whether visual exploration behavior correlate with deficits in gestural imitation in left hemisphere damaged (LHD) patients. Eighteen LHD patients and twenty healthy control subjects took part in the study. Gesture imitation performance was measured by the test for upper limb apraxia (TULIA). Visual exploration behavior was measured by an infrared eye-tracking system. Short videos including forty gestures (20 meaningless and 20 communicative gestures) were presented. Cumulative fixation duration was measured in different regions of interest (ROIs), namely the face, the gesturing hand, the body, and the surrounding environment. Compared to healthy subjects, patients fixated significantly less the ROIs comprising the face and the gesturing hand during the exploration of emblematic and tool-related gestures. Moreover, visual exploration of tool-related gestures significantly correlated with tool-related imitation as measured by TULIA in LHD patients. Patients and controls did not differ in the visual exploration of meaningless gestures, and no significant relationships were found between visual exploration behavior and the imitation of emblematic and meaningless gestures in TULIA. The present study thus suggests that altered visual exploration may lead to disturbed imitation of tool related gestures, however not of emblematic and meaningless gestures. Consequently, our findings partially support the direct matching hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim Vanbellingen
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland; Neurology and Neurorehabilitation Center, Luzerner Kantonsspital, Switzerland
| | - Rahel Schumacher
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland; Division of Cognitive and Restorative Neurology, Department of Neurology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Switzerland
| | - Noëmi Eggenberger
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland
| | - Simone Hopfner
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland
| | - Dario Cazzoli
- Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Clinical Neurology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Basil C Preisig
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland
| | - Manuel Bertschi
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland
| | - Thomas Nyffeler
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland; Neurology and Neurorehabilitation Center, Luzerner Kantonsspital, Switzerland
| | - Klemens Gutbrod
- Division of Cognitive and Restorative Neurology, Department of Neurology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Switzerland
| | - Claudio L Bassetti
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland
| | - Stephan Bohlhalter
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland; Neurology and Neurorehabilitation Center, Luzerner Kantonsspital, Switzerland
| | - René M Müri
- Perception and Eye Movement Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Clinical Research, Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, Switzerland; Division of Cognitive and Restorative Neurology, Department of Neurology, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Switzerland; Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Group, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Center for Cognition, Learning and Memory, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
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A distributed network critical for selecting among tool-directed actions. Cortex 2015; 65:65-82. [PMID: 25681649 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2015.01.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2014] [Revised: 12/11/2014] [Accepted: 01/13/2015] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Tools pose a challenge to the need to select actions appropriate for task goals and environmental constraints. For many tools (e.g., calculator), actions for "using" and "grasping-to-move" conflict with each other and may compete during selection. To date, little is known about the mechanisms that enable selection between possible tool actions or their neural substrates. The study of patients with chronic left hemisphere stroke, many of whom are deficient in tool-use action (apraxic), provides an opportunity to elucidate these issues. Here, 31 such patients pantomimed or recognized tool use actions for "conflict" and "non-conflict" tools. Voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM), lesion subtraction, and tractographic overlap analyses were used to determine brain regions necessary for selecting among tool-directed actions. Lesions to posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) and anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS) tended to impair production of use actions similarly for both conflict and non-conflict tools. By contrast, lesions to the supramarginal gyrus (SMG), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG)/anterior insula, and superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) specifically impaired production of use actions for conflict tools. Patients' errors on conflict tools suggested inappropriate selection of grasping actions and difficulty selecting single actions. Use/grasp conflict had no effect on action recognition. We suggest that the SMG/SLF/IFG pathway implements biased competition between possible tool actions, while aIPS and pMTG compute the structure-based and skilled use actions, respectively, that constitute input to this competitive process. This is the first study to demonstrate a reliable link between a characteristic of single tools (i.e., their association with different use and grasp actions) and action selection difficulties. Additionally, the data allow us to posit an SMG-involved subtype of apraxia characterized by an inability to resolve action competition.
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Buxbaum LJ, Shapiro AD, Coslett HB. Reply: apraxia: a gestural or a cognitive disorder? ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2014; 138:e334. [PMID: 25173604 DOI: 10.1093/brain/awu240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Laurel J Buxbaum
- 1 Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, 50 Township Line Rd, Elkins Park, PA, 19027, USA
| | - Allison D Shapiro
- 2 Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
| | - H Branch Coslett
- 3 Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 3400 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA, USA
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Watson CE, Buxbaum LJ. Uncovering the architecture of action semantics. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 2014; 40:1832-48. [PMID: 25045905 DOI: 10.1037/a0037449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Despite research suggesting that stored sensorimotor information about tool use is a component of the semantic representations of tools, little is known about the action features or organizing principles that underlie this knowledge. We used methods similar to those applied in other semantic domains to examine the "architecture" of action semantic knowledge. In Experiment 1, participants sorted photographs of tools into groups according to the similarity of their associated "use" actions and rated tools on dimensions related to action. The results suggest that the magnitude of arm movement, configuration of the hand, and manner of motion during tool use play a role in determining how tools cluster in action "semantic space." In Experiment 2, we validated the architecture uncovered in Experiment 1 using an implicit semantic task for which tool use knowledge was not ostensibly relevant (blocked cyclic word-picture matching). Using stimuli from Experiment 1, we found that participants performed more poorly during blocks of trials containing tools used with similar versus unrelated actions, and the amount of semantic interference depended on the magnitude of action similarity among tools. Thus, the degree of featural overlap between tool use actions plays a role in determining the overall semantic similarity of tools.
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