ArticleFrontiers in psychology2019
Language as a Tool: Motor Proficiency Using a Tool Predicts Individual Linguistic Abilities.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Associations Between Smartphone-Based Finger Tapping and Cognitive Performance in Older Adults: Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Observational
- Processing Language Partly Shares Neural Genetic Basis with Processing Tools and Body Parts.eNeuro · 2024Article
- Up right, not right up: Primacy of verticality in both language and movement.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
- Revisiting the relation between syntax, action, and left BA44.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Review
- Highlights from the 30th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neural Control of Movement.Journal of neurophysiology · 2021Article
- The cerebellum-driven social basis of mathematics: implications for one-on-one tutoring of children with mathematics learning disabilities.Cerebellum & ataxias · 2021Article
- A computational model of language functions in flexible goal-directed behaviour.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- A Role for the Action Observation Network in Apraxia After Stroke.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
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.
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Registered trials
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