ArticleScientific reports2022
The cortical thickness of the area PF of the left inferior parietal cortex mediates technical-reasoning skills.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03555162 (Cerebral Bases of Tool Use and Tool Evolution), which is not on this map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Cerebral Bases of Tool Use and Tool Evolution
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Simultaneous real-time EEG-fMRI neurofeedback: A systematic review.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Association Between Cognitive Impairment and Multimodal MRI Markers in Patients with Cerebral Microbleeds: A Retrospective Case-Control Study.International journal of general medicine · 2026Article
- Left area PF as a neural marker of technical reasoning.Brain structure & function · 2025Article
- Dynamic reconfiguration of brain coactivation states associated with active and lecture-based learning of university physics.NPJ science of learning · 2025Article
- Article
- Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying action tool knowledge tasks: specificity of tool-tool compared to hand-tool compatibility tasks.Communications biology · 2025Article
- The technical-reasoning network is recruited when people observe others make or teach how to make tools: An fMRI study.iScience · 2025Article
- Deficits in reaching movements under visual interference as a novel diagnostic marker for mild cognitive impairment.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Illness-related variables and abnormalities of resting-state brain activity in schizophrenia.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- On the functional brain networks involved in tool-related action understanding.Communications biology · 2023Article
- The "Little Circles Test" (LCT): a dusted-off tool for assessing fine visuomotor function.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2023Article
- Cognitive Archeology and the Attentional System: An Evolutionary Mismatch for the GenusJournal of Intelligence · 2023Article
- Autism-Related Differences in Cortical Activation When Observing, Producing, and Imitating Communicative Gestures: An fNIRS Study.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Reduced Resting-State EEG Power Spectra and Functional Connectivity after 24 and 36 Hours of Sleep Deprivation.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Eating Russula mushrooms is a matter of semantic knowledge. Comment on "The elicitation of affordance depends on conceptual attributes: evidence from a virtual reality study" by Lai et al. (2023).Experimental brain research · 2023Article
- fNIRS-Based Differences in Cortical Activation during Tool Use, Pantomimed Actions, and Meaningless Actions between Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Sex differences in functional brain networks involved in interoception: An fMRI study.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- The Area Prostriata may play a role in technical reasoning.Behavioral and brain functions : BBF · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
16 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Most recent research highlights how a specific form of causal understanding, namely technical reasoning, may support the increasing complexity of tools and techniques developed by humans over generations, i.e., the cumulative technological culture (CTC). Thus, investigating the neurocognitive foundations of technical reasoning is essential to comprehend the emergence of CTC in our lineage. Whereas functional neuroimaging evidence started to highlight the critical role of the area PF of the left inferior parietal cortex (IPC) in technical reasoning, no studies explored the links between the structural characteristics of such a brain region and technical reasoning skills. Therefore, in this study, we assessed participants' technical-reasoning performance by using two ad-hoc psycho-technical tests; then, we extracted from participants' 3 T T1-weighted magnetic-resonance brain images the cortical thickness (i.e., a volume-related measure which is associated with cognitive performance as reflecting the size, density, and arrangement of cells in a brain region) of all the IPC regions for both hemispheres. We found that the cortical thickness of the left area PF predicts participants' technical-reasoning performance. Crucially, we reported no correlations between technical reasoning and the other IPC regions, possibly suggesting the specificity of the left area PF in generating technical knowledge. We discuss these findings from an evolutionary perspective, by speculating about how the evolution of parietal lobes may have supported the emergence of technical reasoning in our lineage.
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