Syntax and tool use: two-way links

  Members

Claudio BROZZOLI , Veronique BOULENGER , Alice Catherine ROY

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Scientific framework and objectives

The idea of a supramodal syntax, common to language and action, has gained ground in the field of embodied cognition (Brozzoli et al., 2019; Roy & Arbib, 2005). We have recently shown that the comprehension of syntactically complex sentences (i.e. object-related sentences) and tool use share brain resources in the basal ganglia, so that motor training improves syntactic comprehension performance, and vice versa (Thibault et al., 2021). Our aim is now to identify the crucial elements within tool use and syntax that enable this transfer of learning. We will examine what it is about the syntax of relative propositions that resonates with tool use and enables motor benefit, namely embedding at the centre or dual syntactic function. We will also test other models of syntactic complexity such as causative sentences in order to assess the possible generalisation of the effects of motor training on language.

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  Financial support

• ANR Projet de Recherche Collaborative
  SYNTOOL : The embodied syntax of tools
  Agence Nationale de la Recherche

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  Publications

• Adida, A., Boulenger, V., Roy, A., Brozzoli, C., 2024, "The impact of tool-use training on syntactic learning in a new language ", Embodied and Situated Language Processing, Berlin, 2-5 Oct (conference)
• Boulenger, V., 2022, "How tool use sheds light on embodied syntax", Séminaire Linglunch du Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle, Paris (online), 7 avril
• Thibault, S., Boulenger, V., Roy, A., Brozzoli, C., 2019, "Tool-use triggers improvements in syntactic abilities", Cogntive Neuroscience Society meeting, San Francisco, 23-26 march
• Thibault, S., Py, R., Gervasi, A., Salemme, R., Koun, E., Lövden, M., Boulenger, V., Roy, A., Brozzoli, C., 2021, "Tool use and language share syntactic processes and neural patterns in the basal ganglia ", Science, 374:6569
• Thibault, S., Py, R., Gervasi, M., Lövden, M., Boulenger, V., Roy, A., Brozzoli, C., 2021, "Train one, gain two: Tool use and syntactic skills improve each other via shared neural patterns in the basal ganglia", Neural Control of Movement, online, April 20nd-22th
• Thibault, S., Koun, E., Salemme, R., Roy, A., Boulenger, V., Brozzoli, C., 2024, "Activity in occipito-temporal cortex is involved in tool-use planning and contributes to tool-related semantic neural representations", Neurobiology of Language, 5:4, pp. 1008-1024