Language as a Tool: Motor Proficiency Using a Tool Predicts Individual Linguistic Abilities

Claudio Brozzoli (1, 2, 3, 4) , Alice Catherine Roy (5) , Linda Lidborg (6) , Martin Lövdén (2, 3)

1 HCL - Hospices Civils de Lyon
2 Karolinska Institutet [Stockholm]
3 Stockholm University
4 IMPACT - Integrative Multisensory Perception, Action and Cognition
5 DDL - Dynamique Du Langage
6 Durham University

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

Mots clés: tool-use; syntax; path model analysis; embodied cognition; language

Domaines: Linguistique; Psychologie

Claudio Brozzoli, Alice Catherine Roy, Linda Lidborg, Martin Lövdén. Language as a Tool: Motor Proficiency Using a Tool Predicts Individual Linguistic Abilities. Frontiers in Psychology, 2019, 10, pp.1639. ⟨10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01639⟩. ⟨hal-02460427⟩