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The hand and the tool: the functional architecture of human technical skills
Abstract
The appearance of the tool constitutes, for the palaeontologist, a decisive step in the process of ‘hominization’. This step raises an intriguing problem for the neurobiologist: what, on a biological level and, more specifically, in terms of the organization of nervous structures, permitted the crossing of the ‘cerebral Rubicon’ which separates man from other primates? The study of fossil man has clearly established the presence of manufactured tools beside skeletons that had the fundamental characteristics of the human species, i.e. upright posture, prehensile hands, a reduction of jaw size, and a significant enlargement of the skull. These findings highlight three major fields of enquiry for the neurobiologist.
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“Further, tactile sensations can be projected to the tip of hand-held tools during manipulation (43–45).”
From Threatening a rubber hand that you feel is yours elicits a cortical anxiety response. (2007) · cites this paper as [45]
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Maravita, A., & Iriki, A. (2004) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2003.12.008 · Cited by 1,214
Cortical Networks Related to Human Use of Tools
Lewis, J. W. (2006) · The Neuroscientist · doi:10.1177/1073858406288327 · Cited by 464
“At a cognitive level, a high-order body representation is thought to include what is called a “body schema” (Paillard 1993; Iriki and others 1996).”
BackgroundThreatening a rubber hand that you feel is yours elicits a cortical anxiety response.
Ehrsson, H. H., Wiech, K., Weiskopf, N., Dolan, R. J., & Passingham, R. E. (2007) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0610011104 · Cited by 390
Spence, C., Pavani, F., Maravita, A., & Holmes, N. (2004) · Journal of Physiology-Paris · doi:10.1016/j.jphysparis.2004.03.008 · Cited by 205
“Thanks to the evolutionary liberation of the hands from locomotion, humans can efficiently use tools in order to extend the range of actions that they can perform [102].”
BackgroundInfluentialHihara, S., Notoya, T., Tanaka, M., Ichinose, S., Ojima, H., Obayashi, S., Fujii, N., & Iriki, A. (2006) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.11.020 · Cited by 187
“Light microscopy analyses revealed the emergence of novel projections from the higher visual entres in the vicinity of the temporo-parietal junction and the ventrolateral prefrontal areas to the intraparietal area in monkeys trained in tool-use, ut not in naı̈ve monkeys.”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Paillard, J.
- Corresponding author
- Paillard, Jacques
- Venue
- The Use of Tools by Human and Non-human Primates
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Published
- 1993-03-25
- Pages
- 36-46
- OpenAlex
- W2477388903
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2023: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Oxford University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Keywords
- tool use, hominization, nervous system organization, human evolution, upright posture, brain evolution, primate cognition
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Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The hand and the tool: the functional architecture of human technical skills. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198522638.003.0002
- The paper
- Paillard, J. (1993). The hand and the tool: the functional architecture of human technical skills. The Use of Tools by Human and Non-human Primates. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof%3Aoso/9780198522638.003.0002
