Evaluation of object functionality and mechanical reasoning in humans

人类行为控制的特点是其令人印象深刻的复杂性和在工具使用和对象操纵方面的灵活调整。我们的目标是研究与物体相关的行动负担评估中涉及的认知控制机制。据报道，一些脑损伤患者在使用新的、不熟悉的工具时尤其受损，而在使用熟悉的工具时损伤较小。使用新颖的工具需要评估可用的行动负担能力和目标功能。我们假设，在使用新奇物体(与熟悉的物体相反)的患者中，受损的不是动作知觉和动作执行本身，而是对物体功能的认知评估。对脑损伤患者的长期检查，结合对新工具功能的主观报告的敏感测量，将使我们能够确定机械推理缺陷的流行率及其对公开的病理行为的贡献，而不是通过熟悉工具表现出的语义和程序性知识。基于对这些患者的行为观察，先进的病变分析方法，如基于体素的病变行为图和解剖连通性分析(DTI，弥散张量成像)将为相关神经结构提供确凿证据。在神经科患者中，包括基于我们的神经心理学范式的多变量分析方法和功能连通性分析的功能成像研究应该识别健康受试者中专门处理对象功能和对象熟悉度的结构，并阐明下额顶动作控制网络中的功能相互作用。

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.