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The ideomotor recycling theory for tool use, language, and foresight

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Abstract

The present theoretical framework highlights a common action–perception mechanism for tool use, spoken language, and foresight capacity. On the one hand, it has been suggested that human language and the capacity to envision the future (i.e. foresight) have, from an evolutionary viewpoint, developed mutually along with the pressure of tool use. This co-evolution has afforded humans an evident survival advantage in the animal kingdom because language can help to refine the representation of future scenarios, which in turn can help to encourage or discourage engagement in appropriate and efficient behaviours. On the other hand, recent assumptions regarding the evolution of the brain have capitalized on the concept of “neuronal recycling”. In the domain of cognitive neuroscience, neuronal recycling means that during evolution, some neuronal areas and cognitive functions have been recycled to manage new environmental and social constraints. In the present article, we propose that the co-evolution of tool use, language, and foresight represents a suitable example of such functional recycling throughout a well-defined common action–perception mechanism, i.e. the ideomotor mechanism. This ideomotor account is discussed in light of different future ontogenetic and phylogenetic perspectives.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from ANR (Agence Nationale pour la Recherche; Project “Démences et Utilisation d’Outils/Dementia and Tool Use”, ANR-2011-MALZ-006-03; F. Osiurak; Project “Cognition et économie liée à l’outil/Cognition and tool-use economy” ECOTOOL; ANR-14-CE30-0015-01; F. Osiurak) and was performed within the framework of the LABEX CORTEX (ANR-11-LABX-0042; F. Osiurak) of the Université de Lyon within the programme “Investissements d’Avenir” (ANR-11-IDEX-0007; F. Osiurak) operated by the French National Research Agency (ANR).

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  1. CNRS, Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine (UMR 5287), Université de Bordeaux, Bât. 2A- 2ème étage, 146 rue Léo Saignat, 33076, Bordeaux Cedex, France

    Arnaud Badets

  2. Laboratoire d’Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université de Lyon, Lyon, France

    François Osiurak

  3. Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France

    François Osiurak

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Badets, A., Osiurak, F. The ideomotor recycling theory for tool use, language, and foresight. Exp Brain Res 235, 365–377 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-016-4812-4

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