Evaluation of object functionality and mechanical reasoning in humans

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Human action control is characterized by its impressive complexity and flexible adjustment in tool use and object manipulation. We aim to investigate the cognitive control mechanisms involved in the evaluation of action affordances associated with an object. It has been reported that some brain damaged patients were especially impaired in using novel, unfamiliar tools while they were less impaired in using familiar tools. Using novel tools requires an evaluation of available action affordances and object functionality. We assume that in patients with impaired use of novel (in contrast to familiar) objects not action perception and action implementation per se are impaired but the cognitive evaluation of an object's functionalitiy. The long-term examination of brain-damaged patients in combination with a sensitive measurement of subjective reports on the functionality of novel tools shall allow us to determine the prevalence of mechanical reasoning deficits and their contribution to overt pathological behaviour in contrast to semantic and procedural knowledge ex-pressed through the familiarity of a tool. Based on behavioural observations in these patients advanced methods of lesion analysis like voxel-based lesion-behaviour mapping and anatomical connectivity analyses (DTI, Diffusion Tensor Imaging) will provide conclusive evidence for associated neural structures. Functional imaging studies comprising multivariate analysis approaches and functional connectivity analyses based on our neuropsychological paradigm in neurological patients shall identify structures in healthy subjects that are specifically dealing with object functionality and object familiarity and elucidate functional interactions within the inferior fronto-parietal action control network.