SENSORIMOTOR AND COGNITIVE INTEGRATION FOR TOOL USE

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23570283
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Physical anthropology
• Research Institution: Kyorin University
• Principal Investigator: HIRAI Naoki 杏林大学, 医学部, 名誉教授 (40086583)
• Research Collaborator: HONOGO Toshinori 元東京都神経科学総合研究所, 所長 (60013843) ; SASAKI Shigeto 元東京都神経科学総合研究所, 参事研究員 (50110490) ; UOTANI Kyoutaro 杏林大学, 非常勤講師 ; INATOMI Takami 杏林大学, 実験助手
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: tool use / primate / sensorimotor integration / motor plan / creativity / similarity rule

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We aimed to determine how Japanese monkeys acquire the motor-movement for tool (forceps) use after kinematic analysis under the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals by the National Research Council.　Three monkeys had already learned to use forceps to pick up food using the right hand when the forceps were presented in their front-right side facing food placed on their left (Hirai et al., 2010). When we presented the same forceps with opposite orientation of the original, they refused to act on the forceps. However, they learned to handle the forceps at any orientation in 10-12 days through their active and, importantly, individual learning processes of forceps use reflecting different experience. We can draw out the latent abilities of the monkeys to use a pair of forceps as a “tool”; they had the ability to do the following: 1) conduct advance planning and 2) possess potential knowledge of the causal relationship between their own action on the forceps and its result.

Free Research Field

神経生理学