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Barrett L, Stout D. Minds in movement: embodied cognition in the age of artificial intelligence. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2024; 379:20230144. [PMID: 39155722 PMCID: PMC11391292 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2024] [Accepted: 06/21/2024] [Indexed: 08/20/2024] Open
Abstract
This theme issue brings together researchers from diverse fields to assess the current status and future prospects of embodied cognition in the age of generative artificial intelligence. In this introduction, we first clarify our view of embodiment as a potentially unifying concept in the study of cognition, characterizing this as a perspective that questions mind-body dualism and recognizes a profound continuity between sensorimotor action in the world and more abstract forms of cognition. We then consider how this unifying concept is developed and elaborated by the other contributions to this issue, identifying the following two key themes: (i) the role of language in cognition and its entanglement with the body and (ii) bodily mechanisms of interpersonal perception and alignment across the domains of social affiliation, teaching and learning. On balance, we consider that embodied approaches to the study of cognition, culture and evolution remain promising, but will require greater integration across disciplines to fully realize their potential. We conclude by suggesting that researchers will need to be ready and able to meet the various methodological, theoretical and practical challenges this will entail and remain open to encountering markedly different viewpoints about how and why embodiment matters. This article is the part of this theme issue 'Minds in movement: embodied cognition in the age of artificial intelligence'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louise Barrett
- Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge , Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 3M4, Canada
| | - Dietrich Stout
- Department of Anthropology and Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture, Emory University , Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
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Pargeter J, Cebeiro A, Levy SB. Stone toolmaking energy expenditure differs between novice and expert toolmakers. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2024:e25026. [PMID: 39288016 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.25026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2024] [Revised: 08/16/2024] [Accepted: 08/20/2024] [Indexed: 09/19/2024]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES This study investigates the energetic costs associated with Oldowan-style flake production and how skill differences influence these costs. MATERIALS AND METHODS Nine adult participants, including novice and expert toolmakers, underwent a 2-h experimental session where we measured energy expenditure and flaking outcomes. We measured body mass (kg), percent body fat, and fat-free mass (kg) and used open-circuit indirect calorimetry to quantify energy expenditure. The lithic analysis used standard linear and mass measurements on the resulting cores and flakes. Qualitative observations from the video recordings provide insight into the subject's body positions and hand grips. RESULTS Results reveal significant differences in energy expenditure between novice and expert toolmakers, with experts demonstrating lower overall energy expenditure. Additionally, experts produced more flakes, reduced greater core mass per unit of energy expenditure, and exhibited distinct body positions, hand grips, and core/flake morphologies compared with novices. DISCUSSION The study provides novel insights into the bio-cultural impacts of stone toolmaking skill acquisition, suggesting that skilled performance reduces the metabolic costs of stone tool production. These findings contribute to debates surrounding the origins of human cultural capacities and highlight the importance of including energy expenditure measures in knapping experiments. Moreover, the results suggest that the presence or absence of expertise in the Paleolithic would have fundamentally altered selective pressures and the reliability of skill reproduction. This study enhances our understanding of differences in stone toolmaking skill and their implications for human energy allocation strategies during early technological evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justin Pargeter
- Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, USA
- Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Adela Cebeiro
- Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, USA
| | - Stephanie B Levy
- Department of Anthropology, CUNY Hunter College, New York, USA
- New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, USA
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Tonna M. The Evolution of Symbolic Thought: At the Intersection of Schizophrenia Psychopathology, Ethnoarchaeology, and Neuroscience. Cult Med Psychiatry 2024:10.1007/s11013-024-09873-5. [PMID: 38995487 DOI: 10.1007/s11013-024-09873-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/29/2024] [Indexed: 07/13/2024]
Abstract
The human capacity for symbolic representation arises, evolutionarily and developmentally, from the exploitation of a widespread sensorimotor network, along a fundamental continuity between embodied and symbolic modes of experience. In this regard, the fine balancing between constrained sensorimotor connections (responsible for self-embodiment processing) and more untethered neural associations (responsible for abstract and symbolic processing) is context dependent and plastically neuromodulated, thus intersubjectively constructed within a specific socio-cultural milieu. Instead, in the schizophrenia spectrum this system falls off catastrophically, due to an unbalance toward too unconstrained sensorimotor connectivity, leading to a profound distortion of self/world relation with a symbolic activity detached from its embodied ground. For this very reason, however, schizophrenia psychopathology may contribute to unveil, in a distorted or magnified way, ubiquitous structural features of human symbolic activity, beneath the various, historically determined cultural systems. In this respect, a comparative approach, linking psychopathology and ethnoarchaeology, allows highlight the following invariant formal characteristics of symbolic processing: (1) Emergence of salient perceptive fragments, which stand out from the perceptual field. (2) Spreading of a multiplicity of new significances with suspension of common-sense meaning. (3) Dynamic and passive character through which meaning proliferation is experienced. This study emphasizes the importance of fine-grained psychopathology to elucidate, within a cross-disciplinary framework, the evolutionarily and developmental pathways that shape the basic structures of human symbolization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Tonna
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, Psychiatric Unit, University of Parma, Ospedale Maggiore, Padiglione Braga, Viale A. Gramsci 14, 43126, Parma, Italy.
- Department of Mental Health, Local Health Service, Parma, Italy.
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Boch M, Huber L, Lamm C. Domestic dogs as a comparative model for social neuroscience: Advances and challenges. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2024; 162:105700. [PMID: 38710423 PMCID: PMC7616343 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2023] [Revised: 03/19/2024] [Accepted: 04/30/2024] [Indexed: 05/08/2024]
Abstract
Dogs and humans have lived together for thousands of years and share many analogous socio-cognitive skills. Dog neuroimaging now provides insight into the neural bases of these shared social abilities. Here, we summarize key findings from dog fMRI identifying neocortical brain areas implicated in visual social cognition, such as face, body, and emotion perception, as well as action observation in dogs. These findings provide converging evidence that the temporal cortex plays a significant role in visual social cognition in dogs. We further briefly review investigations into the neural base of the dog-human relationship, mainly involving limbic brain regions. We then discuss current challenges in the field, such as statistical power and lack of common template spaces, and how to overcome them. Finally, we argue that the foundation has now been built to investigate and compare the neural bases of more complex socio-cognitive phenomena shared by dogs and humans. This will strengthen and expand the role of the domestic dog as a powerful comparative model species and provide novel insights into the evolutionary roots of social cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Magdalena Boch
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria; Department of Cognitive Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria.
| | - Ludwig Huber
- Comparative Cognition, Messerli Research Institute, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Medical University of Vienna and University of Vienna, Vienna 1210, Austria
| | - Claus Lamm
- Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria; Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna 1010, Austria
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Taubert M, Ziegler G, Lehmann N. Higher surface folding of the human premotor cortex is associated with better long-term learning capability. Commun Biol 2024; 7:635. [PMID: 38796622 PMCID: PMC11127997 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-06309-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2023] [Accepted: 05/08/2024] [Indexed: 05/28/2024] Open
Abstract
The capacity to learn enabled the human species to adapt to various challenging environmental conditions and pass important achievements on to the next generation. A growing body of research suggests links between neocortical folding properties and numerous aspects of human behavior, but their impact on enhanced human learning capacity remains unexplored. Here we leverage three training cohorts to demonstrate that higher levels of premotor cortical folding reliably predict individual long-term learning gains in a challenging new motor task, above and beyond initial performance differences. Individual folding-related predisposition to motor learning was found to be independent of cortical thickness and intracortical microstructure, but dependent on larger cortical surface area in premotor regions. We further show that learning-relevant features of cortical folding occurred in close spatial proximity to practice-induced structural brain plasticity. Our results suggest a link between neocortical surface folding and human behavioral adaptability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Taubert
- Department of Sport Science, Institute III, Faculty of Humanities, Otto von Guericke University, Zschokkestraße 32, 39104, Magdeburg, Germany.
- Center for Behavioral and Brain Science (CBBS), Otto von Guericke University, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106, Magdeburg, Germany.
- Collaborative Research Center 1436 Neural Resources of Cognition, Otto von Guericke University, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany.
| | - Gabriel Ziegler
- Collaborative Research Center 1436 Neural Resources of Cognition, Otto von Guericke University, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany
- Germany German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Leipziger Straße 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany
- Institute of Cognitive Neurology and Dementia Research, Otto von Guericke University, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany
| | - Nico Lehmann
- Department of Sport Science, Institute III, Faculty of Humanities, Otto von Guericke University, Zschokkestraße 32, 39104, Magdeburg, Germany
- Collaborative Research Center 1436 Neural Resources of Cognition, Otto von Guericke University, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120, Magdeburg, Germany
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
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Vandervert L, Manto M, Adamaszek M, Ferrari C, Ciricugno A, Cattaneo Z. The Evolution of the Optimization of Cognitive and Social Functions in the Cerebellum and Thereby the Rise of Homo sapiens Through Cumulative Culture. CEREBELLUM (LONDON, ENGLAND) 2024:10.1007/s12311-024-01692-z. [PMID: 38676835 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-024-01692-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 04/29/2024]
Abstract
The evolution of the prominent role of the cerebellum in the development of composite tools, and cumulative culture, leading to the rise of Homo sapiens is examined. Following Stout and Hecht's (2017) detailed description of stone-tool making, eight key repetitive involvements of the cerebellum are highlighted. These key cerebellar learning involvements include the following: (1) optimization of cognitive-social control, (2) prediction (3) focus of attention, (4) automaticity of smoothness, appropriateness, and speed of movement and cognition, (5) refined movement and social cognition, (6) learns models of extended practice, (7) learns models of Theory of Mind (ToM) of teachers, (8) is predominant in acquisition of novel behavior and cognition that accrues from the blending of cerebellar models sent to conscious working memory in the cerebral cortex. Within this context, the evolution of generalization and blending of cerebellar internal models toward optimization of social-cognitive learning is described. It is concluded that (1) repetition of movement and social cognition involving the optimization of internal models in the cerebellum during stone-tool making was the key selection factor toward social-cognitive and technological advancement, (2) observational learning during stone-tool making was the basis for both technological and social-cognitive evolution and, through an optimizing positive feedback loop between the cerebellum and cerebral cortex, the development of cumulative culture occurred, and (3) the generalization and blending of cerebellar internal models related to the unconscious forward control of the optimization of imagined future states in working memory was the most important brain adaptation leading to intertwined advances in stone-tool technology, cognitive-social processes behind cumulative culture (including the emergence of language and art) and, thereby, with the rise of Homo sapiens.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mario Manto
- Cerebellar Ataxias Unit, CHU-Charleroi, Charleroi, 6000, Charleroi, Belgium
| | - Michael Adamaszek
- Department of Clinical and Cognitive Neurorehabilitation, Bavaria Hospital, Kreischa, Germany
| | - Chiara Ferrari
- Department of Humanities, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
- IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - Andrea Ciricugno
- IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
- Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
| | - Zaira Cattaneo
- Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Milan, Italy
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Rickelton K, Zintel TM, Pizzollo J, Miller E, Ely JJ, Raghanti MA, Hopkins WD, Hof PR, Sherwood CC, Bauernfeind AL, Babbitt CC. Tempo and mode of gene expression evolution in the brain across primates. eLife 2024; 13:e70276. [PMID: 38275218 PMCID: PMC10876213 DOI: 10.7554/elife.70276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2021] [Accepted: 01/25/2024] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Primate evolution has led to a remarkable diversity of behavioral specializations and pronounced brain size variation among species (Barton, 2012; DeCasien and Higham, 2019; Powell et al., 2017). Gene expression provides a promising opportunity for studying the molecular basis of brain evolution, but it has been explored in very few primate species to date (e.g. Khaitovich et al., 2005; Khrameeva et al., 2020; Ma et al., 2022; Somel et al., 2009). To understand the landscape of gene expression evolution across the primate lineage, we generated and analyzed RNA-seq data from four brain regions in an unprecedented eighteen species. Here, we show a remarkable level of variation in gene expression among hominid species, including humans and chimpanzees, despite their relatively recent divergence time from other primates. We found that individual genes display a wide range of expression dynamics across evolutionary time reflective of the diverse selection pressures acting on genes within primate brain tissue. Using our samples that represent a 190-fold difference in primate brain size, we identified genes with variation in expression most correlated with brain size. Our study extensively broadens the phylogenetic context of what is known about the molecular evolution of the brain across primates and identifies novel candidate genes for the study of genetic regulation of brain evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine Rickelton
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherstUnited States
- Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program, University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherstUnited States
| | - Trisha M Zintel
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherstUnited States
- Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program, University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherstUnited States
| | - Jason Pizzollo
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherstUnited States
- Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program, University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherstUnited States
| | - Emily Miller
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherstUnited States
| | - John J Ely
- Department of Anthropology and Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington UniversityWashingtonUnited States
- MAEBIOS Epidemiology UnitAlamogordoUnited States
| | - Mary Ann Raghanti
- Department of Anthropology, School of Biomedical Sciences, and Brain Health Research Institute, Kent State UniversityKentUnited States
| | - William D Hopkins
- Department of Comparative Medicine, Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine,The University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer CentreBastropUnited States
| | - Patrick R Hof
- New York Consortium in Evolutionary PrimatologyNew YorkUnited States
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiNew YorkUnited States
| | - Chet C Sherwood
- Department of Anthropology and Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology, The George Washington UniversityWashingtonUnited States
| | - Amy L Bauernfeind
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of MedicineSt. LouisUnited States
- Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. LouisSt. LouisUnited States
| | - Courtney C Babbitt
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherstUnited States
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Bruner E. Cognitive archaeology, and the psychological assessment of extinct minds. J Comp Neurol 2024; 532:e25583. [PMID: 38289186 DOI: 10.1002/cne.25583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/01/2024]
Abstract
Evolutionary anthropology relies on both neontological and paleontological information. In the latter case, fields such as paleoneurology, neuroarchaeology, and cognitive archaeology are supplying new perspectives in prehistory and neuroscience. Cognitive archaeology, in particular, investigates the behaviors associated with extinct species or cultures according to specific psychological models. For example, changes in working memory, attention, or visuospatial integration can be postulated when related behavioral changes are described in the archaeological record. However, cognition is a process based on different and partially independent functional elements, and extinct species could hence have evolved distinct combinations of cognitive abilities or features, based on both quantitative and qualitative differences. Accordingly, differences in working memory can lead to more conceptual or more holistic mindsets, with important changes in the perception and management of the mental experience. The parietal cortex is particularly interesting, in this sense, being involved in functions associated with body-tool integration, attention, and visual imaging. In some cases, evolutionary mismatches among these elements can induce drawbacks that, despite their positive effects on natural selection, can introduce important constraints in our own mental skills. Beyond the theoretical background, some hypotheses can be tested following methods in experimental psychology. In any case, theories in cognitive evolution must acknowledge that, beyond the brain and its biology, the human mind is also deeply rooted in body perception, in social networks, and in technological extension.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emiliano Bruner
- Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, Burgos, Spain
- Alzheimer's Centre Reina Sofia-CIEN Foundation-ISCIII, Madrid, Spain
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Pereira D, Manen C, Rigaud S. The shaping of social and symbolic capital during the transition to farming in the Western Mediterranean: Archaeological network analyses of pottery decorations and personal ornaments. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0294111. [PMID: 37939080 PMCID: PMC10631656 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2023] [Accepted: 10/25/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Storing information and circulating it between individuals and groups is a critical behaviour that signals a tipping point in our evolutionary history. Such practices enabled the preservation and consolidation of knowledge over extended periods, facilitating the accumulation of cultural innovations across generations. In this study, we used Social Network Analysis methods to explore how knowledge circulated during the transition to agriculture in the Western Mediterranean region. Previous studies have shown that specific elements of the material culture reveal distinct patterns of cultural interaction among early farming communities. Here, we investigated if two archaeological proxies, personal ornaments and pottery decorations, both with an exclusively symbolic function, reveal different network structures, and if the different degree of connexions acted equally on the transmission of styles, symbols, and network changes over time. Our results relied on cultural data recorded from 77 archaeological occupations covering Italy, France, and Spain, spanning over 1,500 years (ca. 7950~6450 cal BP). By utilizing a chronological dataset comprising 114 radiocarbon dates, we revealed that pottery decorative techniques networks exhibited stronger connexions over space and time, with nodes organized in clear cluster, when compared to personal ornaments networks. The findings highlight the regionalization and fragmentation of cultural networks during the Early Neolithic, and that the transmission of cultural traits within each category of artefact operated through varying cultural and social mechanisms. Pottery expressed a dynamic regional identity, continuously shaped by geographical and chronological proximity, while bead-type associations contributed to enduring identities shared across vast geographical scales. These networks shed light on the multifaceted shaping of social and symbolic capital among the Mediterranean's early farmers, emphasizing the strength and quality of social ties that existed between communities and the level of reciprocity and cooperation required to foster these diverse social, economic, and cultural development strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Pereira
- CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Ministère de la Culture, PACEA, UMR 5199, Pessac, France
| | - Claire Manen
- CNRS UMR5608 TRACES. Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, Maison de la Recherche, Toulouse, France
| | - Solange Rigaud
- CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Ministère de la Culture, PACEA, UMR 5199, Pessac, France
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Sauciuc GA, Persson T. Empirical challenges from the comparative and developmental literature to the Shared Intentionality Theory - a review of alternative data on recursive mind reading, prosociality, imitation and cumulative culture. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1157137. [PMID: 37901066 PMCID: PMC10613111 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1157137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 09/28/2023] [Indexed: 10/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans have an irresistible inclination to coordinate actions with others, leading to species-unique forms of cooperation. According to the highly influential Shared Intentionality Theory (SITh), human cooperation is made possible by shared intentionality (SI), typically defined as a suite of socio-cognitive and motivational traits for sharing psychological states with others, thereby enabling individuals to engage in joint action in the mutually aware pursuit of shared goals. SITh theorises that SI evolved as late as 400,000 years ago, when our ancestors (in particular, Homo heidelbergensis) turned to a kind of food procurement that obligatorily required joint coordinated action. SI is, thus, hypothesized to be absent in other extant species, including our closest genetic relatives, the nonhuman great apes ("apes"). According to SITh, ape psychology is exclusively driven by individualistic motivations, as opposed to human psychology which is uniquely driven by altruistic motivations. The evolutionary scenario proposed by SITh builds on a series of findings from socio-cognitive research with apes and human children, and on the assumption that abilities expressed early in human development are human universals, unlikely to have been shaped by socio-cultural influences. Drawing on the primatological and developmental literature, we provide a systematic - albeit selective - review of SITh-inconsistent findings concerning psychological and behavioural traits theorised to be constitutive of SI. The findings we review pertain to all three thematic clusters typically addressed in SITh: (i) recursive mind reading; (ii) prosociality; (iii) imitation and cumulative culture. We conclude that such alternative data undermine two core SITh claims: the late evolutionary emergence of SI and the radical divide between ape and human psychology. We also discuss several conceptual and methodological limitations that currently hamper reliable comparative research on SI, in particular those engendered by Western-centric biases in the social sciences, where an overreliance on Western samples has promoted the formulation of Western-centric conceptualisations, operationalisations and methodologies.
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Schwartz E, Nenning KH, Heuer K, Jeffery N, Bertrand OC, Toro R, Kasprian G, Prayer D, Langs G. Evolution of cortical geometry and its link to function, behaviour and ecology. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2252. [PMID: 37080952 PMCID: PMC10119184 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37574-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2023] [Indexed: 04/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Studies in comparative neuroanatomy and of the fossil record demonstrate the influence of socio-ecological niches on the morphology of the cerebral cortex, but have led to oftentimes conflicting theories about its evolution. Here, we study the relationship between the shape of the cerebral cortex and the topography of its function. We establish a joint geometric representation of the cerebral cortices of ninety species of extant Euarchontoglires, including commonly used experimental model organisms. We show that variability in surface geometry relates to species' ecology and behaviour, independent of overall brain size. Notably, ancestral shape reconstruction of the cortical surface and its change during evolution enables us to trace the evolutionary history of localised cortical expansions, modal segregation of brain function, and their association to behaviour and cognition. We find that individual cortical regions follow different sequences of area increase during evolutionary adaptations to dynamic socio-ecological niches. Anatomical correlates of this sequence of events are still observable in extant species, and relate to their current behaviour and ecology. We decompose the deep evolutionary history of the shape of the human cortical surface into spatially and temporally conscribed components with highly interpretable functional associations, highlighting the importance of considering the evolutionary history of cortical regions when studying their anatomy and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ernst Schwartz
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Computational Imaging Research Lab, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Karl-Heinz Nenning
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Computational Imaging Research Lab, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Center for Biomedical Imaging and Neuromodulation, Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Katja Heuer
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Unité de Neuroanatomie Appliquée et Théorique, F-75015, Paris, France
| | - Nathan Jeffery
- Institute of Life Course & Medical Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England
| | - Ornella C Bertrand
- Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Edifici ICTA-ICP, c/ Columnes s/n, Campus de la UAB, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès., Barcelona, Spain
- School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Grant Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH9 3FE, United Kingdom
| | - Roberto Toro
- Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Unité de Neuroanatomie Appliquée et Théorique, F-75015, Paris, France
| | - Gregor Kasprian
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Computational Imaging Research Lab, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Daniela Prayer
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Computational Imaging Research Lab, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Georg Langs
- Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Computational Imaging Research Lab, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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Weber GW. Quantum Leaps in Human Biocultural Evolution and the Relationship to Cranial Capacity. Life (Basel) 2023; 13:life13041030. [PMID: 37109559 PMCID: PMC10145355 DOI: 10.3390/life13041030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2023] [Revised: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 04/13/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023] Open
Abstract
The evolution of the genus Homo can only be understood by considering both of the inheritance systems that interact to shape human nature: biology and culture. While growing intellectual abilities are a key factor of human evolution, they are rarely contrasted with cultural progress. Cranial capacity data of 193 hominin fossils from the last seven million years and artefacts of increasing number and complexity in the archaeological record are used to demonstrate the concordant progression of brain-size increase and cultural development, starting approximately two million years ago. Our biocultural evolution shows a number of quantum leaps along the time axis applying to both domains. At first, humans left the canonical evolutionary pathway, which pertains to all other organisms, by enhancing their fitness using sophisticated tools and fire; secondly, they turned into a symbolic species; and finally, humanity now faces a new challenge: "intentional evolution". Chronologically, these quantum leaps correspond to cranial capacity data used here as a proxy for cognitive performance. This contribution tries to demonstrate this parallel development and argues for a simple and generalized model of human biocultural evolution. An extrapolation of the model into the future shows that humans, as biological entities, will not necessarily persist.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerhard W Weber
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences (HEAS), University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria
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13
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Townsend C, Ferraro JV, Habecker H, Flinn MV. Human cooperation and evolutionary transitions in individuality. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2023; 378:20210414. [PMID: 36688393 PMCID: PMC9869453 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0414] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/24/2022] [Accepted: 10/31/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
A major evolutionary transition in individuality involves the formation of a cooperative group and the transformation of that group into an evolutionary entity. Human cooperation shares principles with those of multicellular organisms that have undergone transitions in individuality: division of labour, communication, and fitness interdependence. After the split from the last common ancestor of hominoids, early hominins adapted to an increasingly terrestrial niche for several million years. We posit that new challenges in this niche set in motion a positive feedback loop in selection pressure for cooperation that ratcheted coevolutionary changes in sociality, communication, brains, cognition, kin relations and technology, eventually resulting in egalitarian societies with suppressed competition and rapid cumulative culture. The increasing pace of information innovation and transmission became a key aspect of the evolutionary niche that enabled humans to become formidable cooperators with explosive population growth, the ability to cooperate and compete in groups of millions, and emergent social norms, e.g. private property. Despite considerable fitness interdependence, the rise of private property, in concert with population explosion and socioeconomic inequality, subverts potential transition of human groups into evolutionary entities due to resurgence of latent competition and conflict. This article is part of the theme issue 'Human socio-cultural evolution in light of evolutionary transitions'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cathryn Townsend
- Department of Anthropology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7334, USA
| | - Joseph V. Ferraro
- Department of Anthropology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7334, USA
| | - Heather Habecker
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7334, USA
| | - Mark V. Flinn
- Department of Anthropology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798-7334, USA
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14
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Neuroplasticity enables bio-cultural feedback in Paleolithic stone-tool making. Sci Rep 2023; 13:2877. [PMID: 36807588 PMCID: PMC9938911 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-29994-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2022] [Accepted: 02/14/2023] [Indexed: 02/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Stone-tool making is an ancient human skill thought to have played a key role in the bio-cultural co-evolutionary feedback that produced modern brains, culture, and cognition. To test the proposed evolutionary mechanisms underpinning this hypothesis we studied stone-tool making skill learning in modern participants and examined interactions between individual neurostructural differences, plastic accommodation, and culturally transmitted behavior. We found that prior experience with other culturally transmitted craft skills increased both initial stone tool-making performance and subsequent neuroplastic training effects in a frontoparietal white matter pathway associated with action control. These effects were mediated by the effect of experience on pre-training variation in a frontotemporal pathway supporting action semantic representation. Our results show that the acquisition of one technical skill can produce structural brain changes conducive to the discovery and acquisition of additional skills, providing empirical evidence for bio-cultural feedback loops long hypothesized to link learning and adaptive change.
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15
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Boeckx C. What made us "hunter-gatherers of words". Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1080861. [PMID: 36845441 PMCID: PMC9947416 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1080861] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2022] [Accepted: 01/19/2023] [Indexed: 02/11/2023] Open
Abstract
This paper makes three interconnected claims: (i) the "human condition" cannot be captured by evolutionary narratives that reduce it to a recent 'cognitive modernity', nor by narratives that eliminates all cognitive differences between us and out closest extinct relatives, (ii) signals from paleogenomics, especially coming from deserts of introgression but also from signatures of positive selection, point to the importance of mutations that impact neurodevelopment, plausibly leading to temperamental differences, which may impact cultural evolutionary trajectories in specific ways, and (iii) these trajectories are expected to affect the language phenotypes, modifying what is being learned and how it is put to use. In particular, I hypothesize that these different trajectories influence the development of symbolic systems, the flexible ways in which symbols combine, and the size and configurations of the communities in which these systems are put to use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cedric Boeckx
- Section of General Linguistics, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Institute of Complex Systems, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
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16
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Kastel N, Hesp C, Ridderinkhof KR, Friston KJ. Small steps for mankind: Modeling the emergence of cumulative culture from joint active inference communication. Front Neurorobot 2023; 16:944986. [PMID: 36699948 PMCID: PMC9868743 DOI: 10.3389/fnbot.2022.944986] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2022] [Accepted: 11/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Although the increase in the use of dynamical modeling in the literature on cultural evolution makes current models more mathematically sophisticated, these models have yet to be tested or validated. This paper provides a testable deep active inference formulation of social behavior and accompanying simulations of cumulative culture in two steps: First, we cast cultural transmission as a bi-directional process of communication that induces a generalized synchrony (operationalized as a particular convergence) between the belief states of interlocutors. Second, we cast social or cultural exchange as a process of active inference by equipping agents with the choice of who to engage in communication with. This induces trade-offs between confirmation of current beliefs and exploration of the social environment. We find that cumulative culture emerges from belief updating (i.e., active inference and learning) in the form of a joint minimization of uncertainty. The emergent cultural equilibria are characterized by a segregation into groups, whose belief systems are actively sustained by selective, uncertainty minimizing, dyadic exchanges. The nature of these equilibria depends sensitively on the precision afforded by various probabilistic mappings in each individual's generative model of their encultured niche.
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Affiliation(s)
- Natalie Kastel
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands,Institute for Advanced Study, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands,Precision Psychiatry and Social Physiology Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada,*Correspondence: Natalie Kastel
| | - Casper Hesp
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands,Institute for Advanced Study, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands,Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom,Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - K. Richard Ridderinkhof
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands,Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Karl J. Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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17
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Tonna M, Lucarini V, Borrelli DF, Parmigiani S, Marchesi C. Disembodiment and Language in Schizophrenia: An Integrated Psychopathological and Evolutionary Perspective. Schizophr Bull 2023; 49:161-171. [PMID: 36264669 PMCID: PMC9810023 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbac146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Different hypotheses have flourished to explain the evolutionary paradox of schizophrenia. In this contribution, we sought to illustrate how, in the schizophrenia spectrum, the concept of embodiment may underpin the phylogenetic and developmental pathways linking sensorimotor processes, the origin of human language, and the construction of a basic sense of the self. In particular, according to an embodied model of language, we suggest that the reuse of basic sensorimotor loops for language, while enabling the development of fully symbolic thought, has pushed the human brain close to the threshold of a severe disruption of self-embodiment processes, which are at the core of schizophrenia psychopathology. We adopted an inter-disciplinary approach (psychopathology, neuroscience, developmental biology) within an evolutionary framework, to gain an integrated, multi-perspectival model on the origin of schizophrenia vulnerability. A maladaptive over-expression of evolutionary-developmental trajectories toward language at the expense of embodiment processes would have led to the evolutionary "trade-off" of a hyper-symbolic activity to the detriment of a disembodied self. Therefore, schizophrenia psychopathology might be the cost of long-term co-evolutive interactions between brain and language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matteo Tonna
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, Psychiatric Unit, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
- Department of Mental Health, Local Health Service, Parma, Italy
| | - Valeria Lucarini
- Université Paris Cité, Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (IPNP), INSERM U1266, Paris, France
| | | | - Stefano Parmigiani
- Department of Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, Unit of Behavioral Biology, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
| | - Carlo Marchesi
- Department of Medicine and Surgery, Psychiatric Unit, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
- Department of Mental Health, Local Health Service, Parma, Italy
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18
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Osiurak F, Claidière N, Federico G. Bringing cumulative technological culture beyond copying versus reasoning. Trends Cogn Sci 2023; 27:30-42. [PMID: 36283920 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.09.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2022] [Revised: 09/28/2022] [Accepted: 09/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
The dominant view of cumulative technological culture suggests that high-fidelity transmission rests upon a high-fidelity copying ability, which allows individuals to reproduce the tool-use actions performed by others without needing to understand them (i.e., without causal reasoning). The opposition between copying versus reasoning is well accepted but with little supporting evidence. In this article, we investigate this distinction by examining the cognitive science literature on tool use. Evidence indicates that the ability to reproduce others' tool-use actions requires causal understanding, which questions the copying versus reasoning distinction and the cognitive reality of the so-called copying ability. We conclude that new insights might be gained by considering causal understanding as a key driver of cumulative technological culture.
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Affiliation(s)
- François Osiurak
- Laboratoire d'Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5 avenue Pierre Mendès France, 69676 Bron Cedex, France; Institut Universitaire de France, 1 rue Descartes, 75231 Paris Cedex 5, France.
| | - Nicolas Claidière
- Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, 3 Place Victor Hugo, 13331 Marseille, France
| | - Giovanni Federico
- IRCCS Synlab SDN S.p.A., Via Emanuele Gianturco 113, 80143, Naples, Italy
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19
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Bruner E, Battaglia-Mayer A, Caminiti R. The parietal lobe evolution and the emergence of material culture in the human genus. Brain Struct Funct 2023; 228:145-167. [PMID: 35451642 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-022-02487-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2022] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Traditional and new disciplines converge in suggesting that the parietal lobe underwent a considerable expansion during human evolution. Through the study of endocasts and shape analysis, paleoneurology has shown an increased globularity of the braincase and bulging of the parietal region in modern humans, as compared to other human species, including Neandertals. Cortical complexity increased in both the superior and inferior parietal lobules. Emerging fields bridging archaeology and neuroscience supply further evidence of the involvement of the parietal cortex in human-specific behaviors related to visuospatial capacity, technological integration, self-awareness, numerosity, mathematical reasoning and language. Here, we complement these inferences on the parietal lobe evolution, with results from more classical neuroscience disciplines, such as behavioral neurophysiology, functional neuroimaging, and brain lesions; and apply these to define the neural substrates and the role of the parietal lobes in the emergence of functions at the core of material culture, such as tool-making, tool use and constructional abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emiliano Bruner
- Centro Nacional de Investigación Sobre la Evolución Humana, Burgos, Spain
| | | | - Roberto Caminiti
- Neuroscience and Behavior Laboratory, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Roma, Italy.
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20
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Sehner S, Burkart JM. Cumulative Culture. ZEITSCHRIFT FUR ENTWICKLUNGSPSYCHOLOGIE UND PADAGOGISCHE PSYCHOLOGIE 2023. [DOI: 10.1026/0049-8637/a000268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/31/2023]
Abstract
Abstract: Although the spread of innovations through social learning is well documented in animals, resulting animal cultures have remained simple without an increase in complexity over time. Human culture, in contrast, evolves constantly and is unparalleled in terms of complexity and diversity. Why only human culture is cumulative is the subject of ongoing debates, but the most prevalent suggestions are that animals lack high-fidelity transmission and complex innovations. This article examines how the combination of two factors may have helped humans overcome these limitations: first, our having a big brain, inherited from our great-ape-like ancestors; second, our reliance on extensive allomaternal care that evolved convergently with other cooperatively breeding species. We provide support for this suggestion with recent evidence from cooperatively breeding common marmosets ( Callithrix jacchus), showing that motivation for cooperation can trump intelligence when it comes to solving problems and information transmission to the next generation.
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21
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Liu C, Stout D. Inferring cultural reproduction from lithic data: A critical review. Evol Anthropol 2022; 32:83-99. [PMID: 36245296 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2022] [Revised: 05/10/2022] [Accepted: 09/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The cultural reproduction of lithic technology, long an implicit assumption of archaeological theories, has garnered increasing attention over the past decades. Major debates ranging from the origins of the human culture capacity to the interpretation of spatiotemporal patterning now make explicit reference to social learning mechanisms and cultural evolutionary dynamics. This burgeoning literature has produced important insights and methodological innovations. However, this rapid growth has sometimes led to confusion and controversy due to an under-examination of underlying theoretical and methodological assumptions. The time is thus ripe for a critical assessment of progress in the study of the cultural reproduction of lithic technology. Here we review recent work addressing the evolutionary origins of human culture and the meaning of artifact variation at both intrasite and intersite levels. We propose that further progress will require a more extended and context-specific evolutionary approach to address the complexity of real-world cultural reproduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cheng Liu
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Dietrich Stout
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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22
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Weiller C, Reisert M, Glauche V, Musso M, Rijntjes M. The dual-loop model for combining external and internal worlds in our brain. Neuroimage 2022; 263:119583. [PMID: 36007823 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119583] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2022] [Revised: 08/03/2022] [Accepted: 08/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Intelligible communication with others as well as covert conscious thought requires us to combine a representation of the external world with inner abstract concepts. Interaction with the external world through sensory perception and motor execution is arranged as sequences in time and space, whereas abstract thought and invariant categories are independent of the moment. Using advanced MRI-based fibre tracking on high resolution data from 183 participants in the Human Connectome Project, we identified two large supramodal systems comprising specific cortical regions and their connecting fibre tracts; a dorsal one for processing of sequences in time and space, and a ventral one for concepts and categories. We found that two hub regions exist in the executive front and the perceptive back of the brain where these two cognitive processes converge, constituting a dual-loop model. The hubs are located in the onto- and phylogenetically youngest regions of the cortex. We propose that this hub feature serves as the neural substrate for the more abstract sense of syntax in humans, i.e. for the system populating sequences with content in all cognitive domains. The hubs bring together two separate systems (dorsal and ventral) at the front and the back of the brain and create a closed-loop. The closed-loop facilitates recursivity and forethought, which we use twice; namely, for communication with others about things that are not there and for covert thought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cornelius Weiller
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany.
| | - Marco Reisert
- Department of Medical Physics, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany; Department of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany
| | - Volkmar Glauche
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany
| | - Mariachristina Musso
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany
| | - Michel Rijntjes
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg; Breisacher Street 64, Freiburg D- 79104, Germany
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23
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Lonsdorf EV, Sanz CM. Behavioral and cognitive perspectives on the evolution of tool use from wild chimpanzees. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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24
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Federico G, Reynaud E, Navarro J, Lesourd M, Gaujoux V, Lamberton F, Ibarrola D, Cavaliere C, Alfano V, Aiello M, Salvatore M, Seguin P, Schnebelen D, Brandimonte MA, Rossetti Y, Osiurak F. The cortical thickness of the area PF of the left inferior parietal cortex mediates technical-reasoning skills. Sci Rep 2022; 12:11840. [PMID: 35821259 PMCID: PMC9276675 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-15587-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2021] [Accepted: 06/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Most recent research highlights how a specific form of causal understanding, namely technical reasoning, may support the increasing complexity of tools and techniques developed by humans over generations, i.e., the cumulative technological culture (CTC). Thus, investigating the neurocognitive foundations of technical reasoning is essential to comprehend the emergence of CTC in our lineage. Whereas functional neuroimaging evidence started to highlight the critical role of the area PF of the left inferior parietal cortex (IPC) in technical reasoning, no studies explored the links between the structural characteristics of such a brain region and technical reasoning skills. Therefore, in this study, we assessed participants’ technical-reasoning performance by using two ad-hoc psycho-technical tests; then, we extracted from participants’ 3 T T1-weighted magnetic-resonance brain images the cortical thickness (i.e., a volume-related measure which is associated with cognitive performance as reflecting the size, density, and arrangement of cells in a brain region) of all the IPC regions for both hemispheres. We found that the cortical thickness of the left area PF predicts participants’ technical-reasoning performance. Crucially, we reported no correlations between technical reasoning and the other IPC regions, possibly suggesting the specificity of the left area PF in generating technical knowledge. We discuss these findings from an evolutionary perspective, by speculating about how the evolution of parietal lobes may have supported the emergence of technical reasoning in our lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giovanni Federico
- IRCCS Synlab SDN, Via Emanuele Gianturco, 113, 80143, Naples, Italy.
| | - Emanuelle Reynaud
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Jordan Navarro
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Mathieu Lesourd
- Laboratoire de recherches Intégratives en Neurosciences et Psychologie Cognitive (UR 481), Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France.,MSHE Ledoux, CNRS, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, F-25000, Besançon, France
| | - Vivien Gaujoux
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | - Franck Lamberton
- CERMEP-Imagerie du vivant, MRI Department and CNRS UMS3453, Lyon, France
| | - Danièle Ibarrola
- CERMEP-Imagerie du vivant, MRI Department and CNRS UMS3453, Lyon, France
| | - Carlo Cavaliere
- IRCCS Synlab SDN, Via Emanuele Gianturco, 113, 80143, Naples, Italy
| | - Vincenzo Alfano
- IRCCS Synlab SDN, Via Emanuele Gianturco, 113, 80143, Naples, Italy
| | - Marco Aiello
- IRCCS Synlab SDN, Via Emanuele Gianturco, 113, 80143, Naples, Italy
| | - Marco Salvatore
- IRCCS Synlab SDN, Via Emanuele Gianturco, 113, 80143, Naples, Italy
| | - Perrine Seguin
- Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (CRNL), Computation, Cognition and Neurophysiology Team (Inserm UMR_S 1028-CNRS-UMR 5292-Université de Lyon), Bron, France
| | - Damien Schnebelen
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
| | | | - Yves Rossetti
- Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (CRNL), Trajectoires Team (Inserm UMR_S 1028-CNRS-UMR 5292-Université de Lyon), Bron, France.,Mouvement et Handicap and Neuro-Immersion, Hospices Civils de Lyon et Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, Hôpital Henry Gabrielle, St Genis Laval, France
| | - François Osiurak
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université de Lyon, Lyon, France.,Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
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25
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Crespi BJ, Flinn MV, Summers K. Runaway Social Selection in Human Evolution. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.894506] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Darwin posited that social competition among conspecifics could be a powerful selective pressure. Alexander proposed a model of human evolution involving a runaway process of social competition based on Darwin’s insight. Here we briefly review Alexander’s logic, and then expand upon his model by elucidating six core arenas of social selection that involve runaway, positive-feedback processes, and that were likely involved in the evolution of the remarkable combination of adaptations in humans. We discuss how these ideas fit with the hypothesis that a key life history innovation that opened the door to runaway social selection, and cumulative culture, during hominin evolution was increased cooperation among individuals in small fission-fusion groups.
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26
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Structural Brain Asymmetries for Language: A Comparative Approach across Primates. Symmetry (Basel) 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/sym14050876] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Humans are the only species that can speak. Nonhuman primates, however, share some ‘domain-general’ cognitive properties that are essential to language processes. Whether these shared cognitive properties between humans and nonhuman primates are the results of a continuous evolution [homologies] or of a convergent evolution [analogies] remain difficult to demonstrate. However, comparing their respective underlying structure—the brain—to determinate their similarity or their divergence across species is critical to help increase the probability of either of the two hypotheses, respectively. Key areas associated with language processes are the Planum Temporale, Broca’s Area, the Arcuate Fasciculus, Cingulate Sulcus, The Insula, Superior Temporal Sulcus, the Inferior Parietal lobe, and the Central Sulcus. These structures share a fundamental feature: They are functionally and structurally specialised to one hemisphere. Interestingly, several nonhuman primate species, such as chimpanzees and baboons, show human-like structural brain asymmetries for areas homologous to key language regions. The question then arises: for what function did these asymmetries arise in non-linguistic primates, if not for language per se? In an attempt to provide some answers, we review the literature on the lateralisation of the gestural communication system, which may represent the missing behavioural link to brain asymmetries for language area’s homologues in our common ancestor.
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27
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Mangalam M, Fragaszy DM, Wagman JB, Day BM, Kelty-Stephen DG, Bongers RM, Stout DW, Osiurak F. On the psychological origins of tool use. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 134:104521. [PMID: 34998834 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2021] [Revised: 12/01/2021] [Accepted: 01/01/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
The ubiquity of tool use in human life has generated multiple lines of scientific and philosophical investigation to understand the development and expression of humans' engagement with tools and its relation to other dimensions of human experience. However, existing literature on tool use faces several epistemological challenges in which the same set of questions generate many different answers. At least four critical questions can be identified, which are intimately intertwined-(1) What constitutes tool use? (2) What psychological processes underlie tool use in humans and nonhuman animals? (3) Which of these psychological processes are exclusive to tool use? (4) Which psychological processes involved in tool use are exclusive to Homo sapiens? To help advance a multidisciplinary scientific understanding of tool use, six author groups representing different academic disciplines (e.g., anthropology, psychology, neuroscience) and different theoretical perspectives respond to each of these questions, and then point to the direction of future work on tool use. We find that while there are marked differences among the responses of the respective author groups to each question, there is a surprising degree of agreement about many essential concepts and questions. We believe that this interdisciplinary and intertheoretical discussion will foster a more comprehensive understanding of tool use than any one of these perspectives (or any one of these author groups) would (or could) on their own.
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Affiliation(s)
- Madhur Mangalam
- Department of Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Science, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
| | | | - Jeffrey B Wagman
- Department of Psychology, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61761, USA
| | - Brian M Day
- Department of Psychology, Butler University, Indianapolis, IN 46208, USA
| | | | - Raoul M Bongers
- Department of Human Movement Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9713 GZ Groningen, Netherlands
| | - Dietrich W Stout
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - François Osiurak
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, Lyon 69361, France; Institut Universitaire de France, Paris 75231, France
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28
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Abstract
Creativity generates novel solutions to tasks by processing information. Imagination and mental representations are part of the creative process; we can mull over ideas of our own making, and construct algorithms or scenarios from them. Social scenario-building can be viewed as a human cognitive "super-power" that involves abstraction, meta-representation, time-travel, and directed imaginative thought. We humans have a "theater in our minds" to play out a near-infinite array of social strategies and contingencies. Here we propose an integrative model for why and how humans evolved extraordinary creative abilities. We posit that a key aspect of hominin evolution involved relatively open and fluid social relationships among communities, enabled by a unique extended family structure similar to that of contemporary hunter-gatherer band societies. Intercommunity relationships facilitated the rapid flow of information-"Culture"-that underpinned arms-races in information processing, language, imagination, and creativity that distinguishes humans from other species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark V. Flinn
- Department of Anthropology, Baylor University, Waco, TX, United States
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Bayani KYT, Natraj N, Khresdish N, Pargeter J, Stout D, Wheaton LA. Emergence of perceptuomotor relationships during paleolithic stone toolmaking learning: intersections of observation and practice. Commun Biol 2021; 4:1278. [PMID: 34764417 PMCID: PMC8585878 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-02768-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Stone toolmaking is a human motor skill which provides the earliest archeological evidence motor skill and social learning. Intentionally shaping a stone into a functional tool relies on the interaction of action observation and practice to support motor skill acquisition. The emergence of adaptive and efficient visuomotor processes during motor learning of such a novel motor skill requiring complex semantic understanding, like stone toolmaking, is not understood. Through the examination of eye movements and motor skill, the current study sought to evaluate the changes and relationship in perceptuomotor processes during motor learning and performance over 90 h of training. Participants' gaze and motor performance were assessed before, during and following training. Gaze patterns reveal a transition from initially high gaze variability during initial observation to lower gaze variability after training. Perceptual changes were strongly associated with motor performance improvements suggesting a coupling of perceptual and motor processes during motor learning.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nikhilesh Natraj
- School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
- Division of Neurology, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Nada Khresdish
- Anthropology Department, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Justin Pargeter
- Anthropology Department, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
- Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Dietrich Stout
- Anthropology Department, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Lewis A Wheaton
- School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
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30
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Lende DH, Casper BI, Hoyt KB, Collura GL. Elements of Neuroanthropology. Front Psychol 2021; 12:509611. [PMID: 34712160 PMCID: PMC8545903 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.509611] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2019] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Neuroanthropology is the integration of neuroscience into anthropology and aims to understand “brains in the wild.” This interdisciplinary field examines patterns of human variation in field settings and provides empirical research that complements work done in clinical and laboratory settings. Neuroanthropology often uses ethnography in combination with theories and methods from cognitive science as a way to capture how culture, mind, and brain interact. This article describes nine elements that outline how to do neuroanthropology research: (1) integrating biology and culture through neuroscience and biocultural anthropology; (2) extending focus of anthropology on what people say and do to include what people process; (3) sizing culture appropriately, from broad patterns of culture to culture in small-scale settings; (4) understanding patterns of cultural variation, in particular how culture produces patterns of shared variation; (5) considering individuals in interaction with culture, with levels of analysis that can go from biology to social structures; (6) focusing on interactive elements that bring together biological and cultural processes; (7) conceptual triangulation, which draws on anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience in conjunction with field, clinic, and laboratory; (8) critical complementarity as a way to integrate the strengths of critical scholarship with interdisciplinary work; and (9) using methodological triangulation as a way to advance interdisciplinary research. These elements are illustrated through three case studies: research on US combat veterans and how they use Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as a way to manage the transition to becoming civilians, work on human-raptor interactions to understand how and why these interactions can prove beneficial for human handlers, and adapting cue reactivity research on addiction to a field-based approach to understand how people interact with cues in naturalistic settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel H Lende
- Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Breanne I Casper
- Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Kaleigh B Hoyt
- Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Gino L Collura
- Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
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31
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Osiurak F, Crétel C, Uomini N, Bryche C, Lesourd M, Reynaud E. On the Neurocognitive Co-Evolution of Tool Behavior and Language: Insights from the Massive Redeployment Framework. Top Cogn Sci 2021; 13:684-707. [PMID: 34612604 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12577] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2021] [Revised: 09/09/2021] [Accepted: 09/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the link between brain evolution and the evolution of distinctive features of modern human cognition is a fundamental challenge. A still unresolved question concerns the co-evolution of tool behavior (i.e., tool use or tool making) and language. The shared neurocognitive processes hypothesis suggests that the emergence of the combinatorial component of language skills within the frontal lobe/Broca's area made possible the complexification of tool-making skills. The importance of the frontal lobe/Broca's area in tool behavior is somewhat surprising with regard to the literature on neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience, which has instead stressed the critical role of the left inferior parietal lobe. Therefore, to be complete, any version of the shared neurocognitive processes hypothesis needs to integrate the potential interactions between the frontal lobe/Broca's area and the left inferior parietal lobe as well as their co-evolution at a phylogenetic level. Here, we sought to provide the first elements of answer through the use of the massive deployment framework, which posits that evolutionarily older brain areas are deployed in more cognitive functions (i.e., they are less specific). We focused on the left parietal cortex, and particularly the left areas PF, PGI, and anterior intraparietal (AIP), which are known to be involved in tool use, language, and motor control, respectively. The deployment of each brain area in different cognitive functions was measured by conducting a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. Our results confirmed the pattern of specificity for each brain area and also showed that the left area PGI was far less specific than the left areas PF and AIP. From these findings, we discuss the different evolutionary scenarios depicting the potential co-evolution of the combinatorial and generative components of language and tool behavior in our lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- François Osiurak
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon.,Institut Universitaire de France
| | - Caroline Crétel
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon
| | - Natalie Uomini
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
| | - Chloé Bryche
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon
| | - Mathieu Lesourd
- Laboratoire de Psychologie, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté
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Bennett MS. Five Breakthroughs: A First Approximation of Brain Evolution From Early Bilaterians to Humans. Front Neuroanat 2021; 15:693346. [PMID: 34489649 PMCID: PMC8418099 DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2021.693346] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Retracing the evolutionary steps by which human brains evolved can offer insights into the underlying mechanisms of human brain function as well as the phylogenetic origin of various features of human behavior. To this end, this article presents a model for interpreting the physical and behavioral modifications throughout major milestones in human brain evolution. This model introduces the concept of a "breakthrough" as a useful tool for interpreting suites of brain modifications and the various adaptive behaviors these modifications enabled. This offers a unique view into the ordered steps by which human brains evolved and suggests several unique hypotheses on the mechanisms of human brain function.
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33
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Stout D. The Cognitive Science of Technology. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:964-977. [PMID: 34362661 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.07.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2021] [Revised: 07/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Technology is central to human life but hard to define and study. This review synthesizes advances in fields from anthropology to evolutionary biology and neuroscience to propose an interdisciplinary cognitive science of technology. The foundation of this effort is an evolutionarily motivated definition of technology that highlights three key features: material production, social collaboration, and cultural reproduction. This broad scope respects the complexity of the subject but poses a challenge for theoretical unification. Addressing this challenge requires a comparative approach to reduce the diversity of real-world technological cognition to a smaller number of recurring processes and relationships. To this end, a synthetic perceptual-motor hypothesis (PMH) for the evolutionary-developmental-cultural construction of technological cognition is advanced as an initial target for investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dietrich Stout
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 1557 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
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Bennett MS. What Behavioral Abilities Emerged at Key Milestones in Human Brain Evolution? 13 Hypotheses on the 600-Million-Year Phylogenetic History of Human Intelligence. Front Psychol 2021; 12:685853. [PMID: 34393912 PMCID: PMC8358274 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.685853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2021] [Accepted: 06/16/2021] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
This paper presents 13 hypotheses regarding the specific behavioral abilities that emerged at key milestones during the 600-million-year phylogenetic history from early bilaterians to extant humans. The behavioral, intellectual, and cognitive faculties of humans are complex and varied: we have abilities as diverse as map-based navigation, theory of mind, counterfactual learning, episodic memory, and language. But these faculties, which emerge from the complex human brain, are likely to have evolved from simpler prototypes in the simpler brains of our ancestors. Understanding the order in which behavioral abilities evolved can shed light on how and why our brains evolved. To propose these hypotheses, I review the available data from comparative psychology and evolutionary neuroscience.
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Singh M, Acerbi A, Caldwell CA, Danchin É, Isabel G, Molleman L, Scott-Phillips T, Tamariz M, van den Berg P, van Leeuwen EJC, Derex M. Beyond social learning. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200050. [PMID: 33993759 PMCID: PMC8126463 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2020] [Accepted: 01/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Cultural evolution requires the social transmission of information. For this reason, scholars have emphasized social learning when explaining how and why culture evolves. Yet cultural evolution results from many mechanisms operating in concert. Here, we argue that the emphasis on social learning has distracted scholars from appreciating both the full range of mechanisms contributing to cultural evolution and how interactions among those mechanisms and other factors affect the output of cultural evolution. We examine understudied mechanisms and other factors and call for a more inclusive programme of investigation that probes multiple levels of the organization, spanning the neural, cognitive-behavioural and populational levels. To guide our discussion, we focus on factors involved in three core topics of cultural evolution: the emergence of culture, the emergence of cumulative cultural evolution and the design of cultural traits. Studying mechanisms across levels can add explanatory power while revealing gaps and misconceptions in our knowledge. This article is part of the theme issue 'Foundations of cultural evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manvir Singh
- Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse 31015, France
| | - Alberto Acerbi
- Center for Culture and Evolution, Brunel University London, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, UK
| | | | - Étienne Danchin
- Laboratoire Évolution and Diversité Biologique (EDB, UMR5174), Université Fédérale de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, 31062 Toulouse cedex 9, France
| | - Guillaume Isabel
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Centre de Biologie Intégrative, Université Fédérale de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, 31062 Toulouse cedex 9, France
| | - Lucas Molleman
- Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, 1018 WT Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Thom Scott-Phillips
- Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest 1051, Hungary
| | - Monica Tamariz
- Department of Psychology, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK
| | | | - Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen
- Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
| | - Maxime Derex
- Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse 31015, France
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 5314, Toulouse 31015, France
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36
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Birch J, Heyes C. The cultural evolution of cultural evolution. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200051. [PMID: 33993760 PMCID: PMC8126465 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2020] [Accepted: 09/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
What makes fast, cumulative cultural evolution work? Where did it come from? Why is it the sole preserve of humans? We set out a self-assembly hypothesis: cultural evolution evolved culturally. We present an evolutionary account that shows this hypothesis to be coherent, plausible, and worthy of further investigation. It has the following steps: (0) in common with other animals, early hominins had significant capacity for social learning; (1) knowledge and skills learned by offspring from their parents began to spread because bearers had more offspring, a process we call CS1 (or Cultural Selection 1); (2) CS1 shaped attentional learning biases; (3) these attentional biases were augmented by explicit learning biases (judgements about what should be copied from whom). Explicit learning biases enabled (4) the high-fidelity, exclusive copying required for fast cultural accumulation of knowledge and skills by a process we call CS2 (or Cultural Selection 2) and (5) the emergence of cognitive processes such as imitation, mindreading and metacognition-'cognitive gadgets' specialized for cultural learning. This self-assembly hypothesis is consistent with archaeological evidence that the stone tools used by early hominins were not dependent on fast, cumulative cultural evolution, and suggests new priorities for research on 'animal culture'. This article is part of the theme issue 'Foundations of cultural evolution'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Birch
- Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK
| | - Cecilia Heyes
- All Souls College and Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 4AL, UK
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37
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Stout D, Chaminade T, Apel J, Shafti A, Faisal AA. The measurement, evolution, and neural representation of action grammars of human behavior. Sci Rep 2021; 11:13720. [PMID: 34215758 PMCID: PMC8253764 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-92992-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2021] [Accepted: 06/18/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Human behaviors from toolmaking to language are thought to rely on a uniquely evolved capacity for hierarchical action sequencing. Testing this idea will require objective, generalizable methods for measuring the structural complexity of real-world behavior. Here we present a data-driven approach for extracting action grammars from basic ethograms, exemplified with respect to the evolutionarily relevant behavior of stone toolmaking. We analyzed sequences from the experimental replication of ~ 2.5 Mya Oldowan vs. ~ 0.5 Mya Acheulean tools, finding that, while using the same "alphabet" of elementary actions, Acheulean sequences are quantifiably more complex and Oldowan grammars are a subset of Acheulean grammars. We illustrate the utility of our complexity measures by re-analyzing data from an fMRI study of stone toolmaking to identify brain responses to structural complexity. Beyond specific implications regarding the co-evolution of language and technology, this exercise illustrates the general applicability of our method to investigate naturalistic human behavior and cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dietrich Stout
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
| | - Thierry Chaminade
- Institut de Neurosciences de La Timone, Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France
| | - Jan Apel
- Department of Archaeology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Ali Shafti
- Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - A Aldo Faisal
- Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, London, UK.
- Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, UK.
- Integrative Biology, MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, London, UK.
- Behaviour Analytics Lab, Data Science Institute, London, UK.
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38
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Get a Grip: Variation in Human Hand Grip Strength and Implications for Human Evolution. Symmetry (Basel) 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/sym13071142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Although hand grip strength is critical to the daily lives of humans and our arboreal great ape relatives, the human hand has changed in form and function throughout our evolution due to terrestrial bipedalism, tool use, and directional asymmetry (DA) such as handedness. Here we investigate how hand form and function interact in modern humans to gain an insight into our evolutionary past. We measured grip strength in a heterogeneous, cross-sectional sample of human participants (n = 662, 17 to 83 years old) to test the potential effects of age, sex, asymmetry (hand dominance and handedness), hand shape, occupation, and practice of sports and musical instruments that involve the hand(s). We found a significant effect of sex and hand dominance on grip strength, but not of handedness, while hand shape and age had a greater influence on female grip strength. Females were significantly weaker with age, but grip strength in females with large hands was less affected than those with long hands. Frequent engagement in hand sports significantly increased grip strength in the non-dominant hand in both sexes, while only males showed a significant effect of occupation, indicating different patterns of hand dominance asymmetries and hand function. These results improve our understanding of the link between form and function in both hands and offer an insight into the evolution of human laterality and dexterity.
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Vandervert L, Moe K. The cerebellum-driven social basis of mathematics: implications for one-on-one tutoring of children with mathematics learning disabilities. CEREBELLUM & ATAXIAS 2021; 8:13. [PMID: 33971983 PMCID: PMC8112041 DOI: 10.1186/s40673-021-00136-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/04/2022]
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to argue that the patterns of sequence control over kinematics (movements) and dynamics (forces) which evolved in phonological processing in inner speech during the evolution of the social-cognitive capacities behind stone-tool making that led to the emergence of Homo sapiens are homologous to the social cerebellum's capacity to learn patterns of sequence within language that we refer to as mathematics. It is argued that this evolution (1) selected toward a social cognitive cerebellum which arose from the arduous, repetitive precision patterns of knapping (stone shaping) and (2) that over a period of a million-plus years was selected from mentalizing toward the kinematics and dynamics as observed and modeled in Theory of Mind (ToM) of more experienced stone knappers. It is concluded that components of this socially-induced autobiographical knowledge, namely, (1) segmenting events, (2) sequencing events, and (3) sequencing event clusters, all at various levels of abstraction, can inform optimum approaches to one-on-one tutoring of children with mathematical learning disabilities.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kimberly Moe
- Dept. of Education, Adjunct, Whitworth University, Spokane, USA.
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40
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Asano R. The evolution of hierarchical structure building capacity for language and music: a bottom-up perspective. Primates 2021; 63:417-428. [PMID: 33839984 PMCID: PMC9463250 DOI: 10.1007/s10329-021-00905-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2020] [Accepted: 03/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
A central property of human language is its hierarchical structure. Humans can flexibly combine elements to build a hierarchical structure expressing rich semantics. A hierarchical structure is also considered as playing a key role in many other human cognitive domains. In music, auditory-motor events are combined into hierarchical pitch and/or rhythm structure expressing affect. How did such a hierarchical structure building capacity evolve? This paper investigates this question from a bottom-up perspective based on a set of action-related components as a shared basis underlying cognitive capacities of nonhuman primates and humans. Especially, I argue that the evolution of hierarchical structure building capacity for language and music is tractable for comparative evolutionary study once we focus on the gradual elaboration of shared brain architecture: the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits for hierarchical control of goal-directed action and the dorsal pathways for hierarchical internal models. I suggest that this gradual elaboration of the action-related brain architecture in the context of vocal control and tool-making went hand in hand with amplification of working memory, and made the brain ready for hierarchical structure building in language and music.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rie Asano
- Systematic Musicology, Institute of Musicology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
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41
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42
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van Elk M. A predictive processing framework of tool use. Cortex 2021; 139:211-221. [PMID: 33878688 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.03.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2020] [Revised: 02/01/2021] [Accepted: 03/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
In this paper I introduce the theory of predictive processing as a unifying conceptual framework to account for the human ability to use and innovate tools. I explain the basic concepts of predictive processing and illustrate how this framework accounts for the development of tool use in young infants and for findings in the neuropsychological and neuroscientific literature. Then, I argue that the predictive processing model needs to be complemented with a functional-evolutionary perspective, according to which the developmental and neurocognitive mechanisms should be understood in relation to the adaptive function that tools subserve. I discuss cross-cultural and comparative studies on tool use to illustrate how tools could facilitate a process of cumulative cultural and technological evolution. Furthermore, I illustrate how central premises of the predictive processing framework, such as the notion of Bayesian inference as a general principle and the role of prediction-error-updating, speak to central debates in evolutionary psychology, such as the massive modularity hypothesis and the trade-off between exploitation and innovation. Throughout the paper I make several concrete suggestions for future studies that could be used to put the predictive processing model of tool use to the test.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michiel van Elk
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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43
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44
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Thompson JC, Wright DK, Ivory SJ. The emergence and intensification of early hunter-gatherer niche construction. Evol Anthropol 2020; 30:17-27. [PMID: 33341104 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21877] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2019] [Revised: 03/31/2020] [Accepted: 08/30/2020] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Hunter-gatherers, especially Pleistocene examples, are not well-represented in archeological studies of niche construction. However, as the role of humans in shaping environments over long time scales becomes increasingly apparent, it is critical to develop archeological proxies and testable hypotheses about early hunter-gatherer impacts. Modern foragers engage in niche constructive behaviors aimed at maintaining or increasing the productivity of their environments, and these may have had significant ecological consequences over later human evolution. In some cases, they may also represent behaviors unique to modern Homo sapiens. Archeological and paleoenvironmental data show that African hunter-gatherers were niche constructors in diverse environments, which have legacies in how ecosystems function today. These can be conceptualized as behaviorally mediated trophic cascades, and tested using archeological and paleoenvironmental proxies. Thus, large-scale niche construction behavior is possible to identify at deeper time scales, and may be key to understanding the emergence of modern humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica C Thompson
- Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - David K Wright
- Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China
| | - Sarah J Ivory
- Department of Geosciences and Earth and Environmental Sciences Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
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45
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Reply to Barkai: Implications of the Konso bone handaxe. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:30894-30895. [PMID: 33109716 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2018084117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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46
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Van Overwalle F, Manto M, Cattaneo Z, Clausi S, Ferrari C, Gabrieli JDE, Guell X, Heleven E, Lupo M, Ma Q, Michelutti M, Olivito G, Pu M, Rice LC, Schmahmann JD, Siciliano L, Sokolov AA, Stoodley CJ, van Dun K, Vandervert L, Leggio M. Consensus Paper: Cerebellum and Social Cognition. CEREBELLUM (LONDON, ENGLAND) 2020; 19:833-868. [PMID: 32632709 PMCID: PMC7588399 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-020-01155-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 196] [Impact Index Per Article: 49.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The traditional view on the cerebellum is that it controls motor behavior. Although recent work has revealed that the cerebellum supports also nonmotor functions such as cognition and affect, only during the last 5 years it has become evident that the cerebellum also plays an important social role. This role is evident in social cognition based on interpreting goal-directed actions through the movements of individuals (social "mirroring") which is very close to its original role in motor learning, as well as in social understanding of other individuals' mental state, such as their intentions, beliefs, past behaviors, future aspirations, and personality traits (social "mentalizing"). Most of this mentalizing role is supported by the posterior cerebellum (e.g., Crus I and II). The most dominant hypothesis is that the cerebellum assists in learning and understanding social action sequences, and so facilitates social cognition by supporting optimal predictions about imminent or future social interaction and cooperation. This consensus paper brings together experts from different fields to discuss recent efforts in understanding the role of the cerebellum in social cognition, and the understanding of social behaviors and mental states by others, its effect on clinical impairments such as cerebellar ataxia and autism spectrum disorder, and how the cerebellum can become a potential target for noninvasive brain stimulation as a therapeutic intervention. We report on the most recent empirical findings and techniques for understanding and manipulating cerebellar circuits in humans. Cerebellar circuitry appears now as a key structure to elucidate social interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frank Van Overwalle
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Mario Manto
- Mediathèque Jean Jacquy, Service de Neurologie, CHU-Charleroi, Charleroi, Belgium
- Service des Neurosciences, Université de Mons, Mons, Belgium
| | - Zaira Cattaneo
- University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
- IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy
| | - Silvia Clausi
- Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | | | - John D. E. Gabrieli
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
| | - Xavier Guell
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA
- Ataxia Unit, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Unit, Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA
| | - Elien Heleven
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Michela Lupo
- Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy
| | - Qianying Ma
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Marco Michelutti
- Service de Neurologie & Neuroscape@NeuroTech Platform, Département des Neurosciences Cliniques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Service de Neurologie Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Neurosciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
| | - Giusy Olivito
- Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Min Pu
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neuroscience, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
| | - Laura C. Rice
- Department of Psychology and Department of Neuroscience, American University, Washington, DC USA
| | - Jeremy D. Schmahmann
- Ataxia Unit, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Unit, Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA
| | - Libera Siciliano
- Program in Behavioral Neuroscience, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
| | - Arseny A. Sokolov
- Service de Neurologie & Neuroscape@NeuroTech Platform, Département des Neurosciences Cliniques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), Service de Neurologie Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Neurology, University Neurorehabilitation, University Hospital Inselspital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London (UCL), London, UK
- Neuroscape Center, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA USA
| | - Catherine J. Stoodley
- Department of Psychology and Department of Neuroscience, American University, Washington, DC USA
| | - Kim van Dun
- Neurologic Rehabilitation Research, Rehabilitation Research Institute (REVAL), Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Larry Vandervert
- American Nonlinear Systems, 1529 W. Courtland Avenue, Spokane, WA 99205-2608 USA
| | - Maria Leggio
- Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, 00179 Rome, Italy
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
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47
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Osiurak F, Cretel C, Duhau-Marmon N, Fournier I, Marignier L, De Oliveira E, Navarro J, Reynaud E. The Pedagogue, the Engineer, and the Friend : From Whom Do We Learn? HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2020; 31:462-482. [PMID: 33420606 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-020-09379-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/06/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Humans can follow different social learning strategies, sometimes oriented toward the models' characteristics (i.e., who-strategies). The goal of the present study was to explore which who-strategy is preferentially followed in the technological context based on the models' psychological characteristics. We identified three potential who-strategies: Copy the pedagogue (a model with high theory-of-mind skills), copy the engineer (a model with high technical-reasoning skills), and copy the friend (a model with high level of prosocialness). We developed a closed-group micro-society paradigm in which participants had to build the highest possible towers. Participants began with an individual building phase. Then, they were gathered to discuss the best solutions to increase tower height. After this discussion phase, they had to make a new building attempt, followed by another discussion phase, and so forth for a total of six building phases and five discussion rounds. This methodology allowed us to create an attraction score for each participant (the more an individual was copied in a group, the greater the attraction score). We also assessed participants' theory-of-mind skills, technical-reasoning skills, and prosocialness to predict participants' attraction scores based on these measures. Results show that we learn from engineers (high technical-reasoning skills) because they are the most successful. Their attraction power is not immediate, but after they have been identified as attractors, their technique is copied irrespective of their pedagogy (theory-of-mind skills) or friendliness (prosocialness). These findings open avenues for the study of the cognitive bases of human technological culture.
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Affiliation(s)
- François Osiurak
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France.
- Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France.
| | - Caroline Cretel
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
| | - Naomi Duhau-Marmon
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
| | - Isabelle Fournier
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
| | - Lucie Marignier
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
| | - Emmanuel De Oliveira
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
| | - Jordan Navarro
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
- Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
| | - Emanuelle Reynaud
- Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs, Université de Lyon, 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
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48
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Lucas AJ, Kings M, Whittle D, Davey E, Happé F, Caldwell CA, Thornton A. The value of teaching increases with tool complexity in cumulative cultural evolution. Proc Biol Sci 2020. [PMID: 33203332 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1885rspb20201885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Human cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) is recognized as a powerful ecological and evolutionary force, but its origins are poorly understood. The long-standing view that CCE requires specialized social learning processes such as teaching has recently come under question, and cannot explain why such processes evolved in the first place. An alternative, but largely untested, hypothesis is that these processes gradually coevolved with an increasing reliance on complex tools. To address this, we used large-scale transmission chain experiments (624 participants), to examine the role of different learning processes in generating cumulative improvements in two tool types of differing complexity. Both tool types increased in efficacy across experimental generations, but teaching only provided an advantage for the more complex tools. Moreover, while the simple tools tended to converge on a common design, the more complex tools maintained a diversity of designs. These findings indicate that the emergence of cumulative culture is not strictly dependent on, but may generate selection for, teaching. As reliance on increasingly complex tools grew, so too would selection for teaching, facilitating the increasingly open-ended evolution of cultural artefacts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda J Lucas
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Michael Kings
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Devi Whittle
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Emma Davey
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Francesca Happé
- Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK
| | | | - Alex Thornton
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
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49
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Lucas AJ, Kings M, Whittle D, Davey E, Happé F, Caldwell CA, Thornton A. The value of teaching increases with tool complexity in cumulative cultural evolution. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20201885. [PMID: 33203332 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Human cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) is recognized as a powerful ecological and evolutionary force, but its origins are poorly understood. The long-standing view that CCE requires specialized social learning processes such as teaching has recently come under question, and cannot explain why such processes evolved in the first place. An alternative, but largely untested, hypothesis is that these processes gradually coevolved with an increasing reliance on complex tools. To address this, we used large-scale transmission chain experiments (624 participants), to examine the role of different learning processes in generating cumulative improvements in two tool types of differing complexity. Both tool types increased in efficacy across experimental generations, but teaching only provided an advantage for the more complex tools. Moreover, while the simple tools tended to converge on a common design, the more complex tools maintained a diversity of designs. These findings indicate that the emergence of cumulative culture is not strictly dependent on, but may generate selection for, teaching. As reliance on increasingly complex tools grew, so too would selection for teaching, facilitating the increasingly open-ended evolution of cultural artefacts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanda J Lucas
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Michael Kings
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Devi Whittle
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Emma Davey
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
| | - Francesca Happé
- Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King's College London, London SE5 8AF, UK
| | | | - Alex Thornton
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus TR10 9FE, UK
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50
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Vandervert L. The prominent role of the cerebellum in the social learning of the phonological loop in working memory: How language was adaptively built from cerebellar inner speech required during stone-tool making. AIMS Neurosci 2020; 7:333-343. [PMID: 32995491 PMCID: PMC7519967 DOI: 10.3934/neuroscience.2020020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/30/2020] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Based on advances in cerebellum research as to its cognitive, social, and language contributions to working memory, the purpose of this article is to describe new support for the prominent involvement of cerebellar internal models in the adaptive selection of language. Within this context it has been proposed that (1) cerebellar internal models of inner speech during stone-tool making accelerated the adaptive evolution of new cause-and-effect sequences of precision stone-tool knapping requirements, and (2) that these evolving cerebellar internal models coded (i.e., learned in corticonuclear microcomplexes) such cause-and-effect sequences as phonological counterparts and, these, when sent to the cerebral cortex, became new phonological working memory. This article describes newer supportive research findings on (1) the cerebellum's role in silent speech in working memory, and (2) recent findings on genetic aspects (FOXP2) of the role of silent speech in language evolution. It is concluded that within overall cerebro-cerebellar evolution, without the evolution of cerebellar coding of stone-tool making sequences of primitive working memory (beginning approximately 1.7 million years ago) language would not have evolved in the subsequent evolution of Homo sapiens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Larry Vandervert
- American Nonlinear Systems, 1529 W. Courtland Ave. Spokane, WA 99205, USA
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