Le rôle de l'action dans l'accès aux concepts d'objets : apport de la neuropsychologie et des neurosciences cognitives

Abstract

Embodied views of concepts claim that object concepts are grounded in the sensori-motor system. According to such views, conceptual processing would automatically reactivate our sensorimotor experience with objects and would consequently rely on the neural networks involved in perception and action. In this framework, motor experience may have a crucial role in the formation and processing of particular kinds of concepts. In the present paper, we report some of the main arguments in the neuroimagery, neuropsychology and cognitive psychology fields, which support this assumption. First, we present the neuroimaging studies of conceptual processing. They revealed that in comparison to other conceptual categories such as animals, conceptual processing of tools specifically activates the visuo-motor system involved in action execution and action semantics. Moreover, tool-selective activations seem more deeply linked to object manipulability than object domain. Neuropsychological deficits toward artefact concept categories may actually be related to the impairment of manipulable objet concepts. On the one hand, this points out the necessity to take into account object manipulability when assessing conceptual knowledge. On the other hand, it suggests that action experience could shape concept formation and processing at the neural and cognitive levels. Thus, we then review empirical findings from behavioural studies using compatibility and priming tasks, which demonstrate that, the reactivation of action information influences conceptual processing. Finally, we consider how contextual and functional knowledge could emerge from motor experience, given that context of use and function are essential for manipulable objet concepts such as tools. The findings reported here raise the issue of the relationship between manipulation and function knowledge and provide new directions for the assessment and rehabilitation of apraxic patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)