NeuroCognitive Bases of Tool Use (TECHNITION)

Civil Hospices of Lyon

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Healthy

Treatments: Other: fRMI

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04566744

2020-A02115-34 (Other Identifier)

69HCL20_0677

Details and patient eligibility

About

Tool use is considered to be the hallmark of complex cognitive adaptations that humans have achieved trough evolution, that provides an adaptive advantage to the human species. Even if nonhuman species do use tools too, human tool use is much more complex and sophisticated. If humans have special abilities for tool use, it has to be grounded in a specific neuroanatomical substrate. Humans and nonhumans share a similar prehension system located within the superior parietal lobe and the intraparietal sulcus. However, there is a human specificity: the supramarginal gyrus within the left inferior parietal lobe is unique to humans, and could play a central role in tool use. This project aims to study the neurocognitive bases of human tool use with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), to precise the cognitive mechanisms through which humans are able to use tools.

Enrollment: 320 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• To be between the ages of 18 and 65 years old
• Having given an informed consent for the study

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnant or breastfeeding woman
• Persons under curators or deprived of civil rights or deprived of their freedom
• Not being registered with the French Social Security System
• Not able to read/write the French
• Neurologic or psychiatric illness, known or revealed during the inclusion visit
• Substance intake ( taking psychoactive medications or recreational drugs) on the day of the experiment
• Noise intolerance
• Unable to fill a questionnaire (severe cognitive troubles)
• Not willing that their personal doctor to be informed in case of a MRI anomaly.
• Not willing to be informed in case of MRI anomaly
• Subjects must not have metallic or electronic implants in the body : pacemakers or pacemaker wires, open heart surgery, artificial heart valve, brain aneurysm surgery, middle ear implant, hearing aid, braces or extensive dental work, cataract surgery or lens implant, implanted mechanical or electrical device, or artificial limb or joint o foreign metallic objects in the body (bullets, pellets, shrapnel, or metalwork fragments) or current or past employment as machinists, welders or metal workers, tattoos near the head or neck regions, permanent makeup
• Not willing to complete the study
• Appearance of a exclusion criterion during the protocol
• Appearance of an undesirable event preventing the completion of the protocol
• Too great head movements (>4mm for the session)
• Detection of artifacts in the brain images collected

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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320 participants in 4 patient groups

Physical tool use, tool making and construction

Experimental group

Description:

The fMRI experimental conditions in this arm will allow us to study the activity of the brain when solving mechanical problems in using either a physical tool, making a physical tool or building a construction. Only the fMRI experimental session is necessary. These experimental conditions related to the BOLD measures given by the fMRI technique will allow us to draw hypotheses on the neurocognitive mechanisms at work when we use or make physical tools as well as when we build constructions.

Treatment:

Other: fRMI

Use of modern physical tools and stone tools

Experimental group

Description:

The fMRI experimental conditions in this arm will allow us to study the activity of the brain when solving mechanical problems in using either a modern physical tool or a stone tool. Only the fMRI experimental session is necessary. These experimental conditions related to the BOLD measures given by the fMRI technique will allow us to draw hypotheses on the neurocognitive mechanisms at work when we use or make physical tools irrespective of whether they are modern or old (i.e., stone tools).

Treatment:

Other: fRMI

Use of modern physical, arbitrary and digital tools

Experimental group

Description:

The fMRI experimental conditions in this arm will allow us to study the activity of the brain when watching video clips of individuals using either a modern physical tool, an arbitrary tool (e.g., a washing machine) or a digital tool (e.g., a touchscreen). Only the fMRI experimental session is necessary. These experimental conditions related to the BOLD measures given by the fMRI technique will allow us to draw hypotheses on the neurocognitive mechanisms at work when we observe others using different kinds of tools, which have appeared progressively over technological evolution.

Treatment:

Other: fRMI

Physical tool use and Internet

Experimental group

Description:

The fMRI experimental conditions in this arm will allow us to study the activity of the brain when estimating the capacity to solve a mechanical problem with modern physical tools either alone or with the help of a Internet Tutorial. Only the fMRI experimental session is necessary. These experimental conditions related to the BOLD measures given by the fMRI technique will allow us to draw hypotheses on the neurocognitive mechanisms at work when we imagine and estimate solving a mechanical problem alone or with the help of the Internet;

Treatment:

Other: fRMI