Could picking up a pair of pliers improve your language skills? It seems a strange question, but it was one an international team of researchers was compelled to ask in the face of growing evidence that fine motor skills and language are linked in the brain. Their study was published yesterday in the journal Science.

They asked people to complete motor training exercises using mechanical pliers, as well as language syntax exercises. Using brain imaging, the researchers showed the two tasks activated common areas in the brain. And when they observed people’s performance in these activities one after the other, they found motor training with the pliers was associated with an improvement in people’s understanding of complex sentences – and vice versa. As two of the researchers explain, this finding could one day help people struggling with language or motor skills.

Elsewhere, there’s been no shortage of corruption allegations in the UK recently. A professor of politics explains how the UK compares to other countries in this regard. And men without university degrees have suffered the biggest hit to employment since the beginning of the pandemic.

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Phoebe Roth

Commissioning Editor

SvedOliver/Shutterstock

Tool use and language skills are linked in the brain – and practising one improves the other

Claudio Brozzoli, Karolinska Institutet; Simon Thibault, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1

We used brain imaging techniques to show these two activities engage the same region of the brain. Then we wanted to find out more.

Ian Davidson/Alamy

Corruption: how the UK compares to other countries

Daniel Hough, University of Sussex

The UK actually rates very well when compared to other nations – depending on what you include in your data.

Shutterstock/Artem Avetisyan

Men without university degrees have suffered the biggest hit to employment since COVID

Jeevun Sandher, King's College London

The pandemic has left many looking for work as part of a longer term decline.

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