Clinical trial NCT03555162: Study of the Cerebral Bases of Tool Use and Tool Evolution
Official title: Cerebral Bases of Tool Use and Tool Evolution
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Healthy
Keywords: Tool
fMRI
neuroimaging
Evolution
Lead sponsor: Hospices Civils de Lyon
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2018-06-13
Enrollment: 70
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: Tool use is considered to be the hallmark of complex cognitive adaptations that humans have achieved trough evolution, that provides an adaptive advantage to the human species. Even if nonhuman species do use tools too, human tool use is much more complex and sophisticated. Besides, only humans can make their tools evolve by improving them. If Man has special abilities for tool use, it has to be grounded in a specific neuroanatomical substrate. Humans and nonhumans share a similar prehension system located within the superior parietal lobe and the intraparietal sulcus. However, there is a human specificity : the surpramarginal gyrus within the left inferior parietal lobe is unique to Man, and could play a central role in tool use and tool evolution.

This project aims to study the neural correlates of human tool use with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), to precise the cognitive mechanisms through which humans are able to use tools. We also wish to study what are the cognitive abilities that allow us to make our tools evolve by improving them, and the neural correlates associated.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* To be between the ages of 18 and 65 years old
* Having given an informed consent for the study
* Being right-handed
* Being registered with the French Social Security System

Exclusion Criteria:

* No signature on the consent form, including inability to read or write French.
* Neurologic or psychiatric illness, known or revealed durnig the inclusion visit
* Substance intake ( taking psychoactive medications or recreational drugs) on the day of the experiment
* Noise intolerance
* Minor person, pregnant or breastfeeding woman
* Persons under curatorship or deprived of civil rights or deprived of their freedom
* Unable to fill a questionnaire (severe cognitive troubles)
* Subjects must not have metallic or electronic implants in the body : pacemakers or pacemaker wires, open heart surgery, artificial heart valve, brain aneurysm surgery, middle ear implant, hearing aid, braces or extensive dental work, cataract surgery or lens implant, implanted mechanical or electrical device, or artificial limb or joint o foreign metallic objects in the body (bullets, BBs, pellets, schrapnel, or metalwork fragments) or current or past employment as machinists, welders or metal workers, tattoos near the head or neck regions, permanent makeup
* Claustrophobia

Primary outcomes:
measure: BOLD effect
timeFrame: 1 hour
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Ability to improve a tool
timeFrame: 20 minutes
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Lyon
country: France
facility: Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EMC) -Université Lumière Lyon 2
Study officials:
affiliation: Hospices Civils de Lyon
name: Yves ROSSETTI, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: