The brain-artefact interface (BAI): a challenge for archaeology and cultural neuroscience

Re-thinging Embodied and Enactive Psychiatry: A Material Engagement Approach

Emerging consensus among enactivist philosophers and embodied mind theorists suggests that seeking to understand mental illness we need to look out of our skulls at the ecology of the brain. Still, the complex links between materiality (in broadest sense of material objects, habits, practices and environments) and mental health remain little understood. This paper discusses the benefits of adopting a material engagement approach to embodied and enactive psychiatry. We propose that the material engagement approach can change the geography of the debate over the nature of mental disorders and through that help to develop theoretical and practical insights that could improve management and treatment for various psychiatric conditions. We investigate the potential role of Material Engagement Theory (MET) in psychiatry using examples of aetiologically different mental illnesses (schizophrenia and dementia) in respect of their shared phenomenological manifestations, focusing particularly on issues of memory, self-awareness, embodiment and temporality. The effective study of socio-material relations allows better understanding of the semiotic significance and agency of specific materials, environments and technical mediations. There is unrealised potential here for creating new approaches to treatment that can broaden, challenge or complement existing interventions and practices of care.

Oxygen and the Spark of Human Brain Evolution: Complex Interactions of Metabolism and Cortical Expansion across Development and Evolution

Scientific theories on the functioning and dysfunction of the human brain require an understanding of its development-before and after birth and through maturation to adulthood-and its evolution. Here we bring together several accounts of human brain evolution by focusing on the central role of oxygen and brain metabolism. We argue that evolutionary expansion of human transmodal association cortices exceeded the capacity of oxygen delivery by the vascular system, which led these brain tissues to rely on nonoxidative glycolysis for additional energy supply. We draw a link between the resulting lower oxygen tension and its effect on cytoarchitecture, which we posit as a key driver of genetic developmental programs for the human brain-favoring lower intracortical myelination and the presence of biosynthetic materials for synapse turnover. Across biological and temporal scales, this protracted capacity for neural plasticity sets the conditions for cognitive flexibility and ongoing learning, supporting complex group dynamics and intergenerational learning that in turn enabled improved nutrition to fuel the metabolic costs of further cortical expansion. Our proposed model delineates explicit mechanistic links among metabolism, molecular and cellular brain heterogeneity, and behavior, which may lead toward a clearer understanding of brain development and its disorders.

Cognitive archaeology, and the psychological assessment of extinct minds

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.

Cognitive Archeology and the Attentional System: An Evolutionary Mismatch for the Genus Homo

Brain evolution is a key topic in evolutionary anthropology. Unfortunately, in this sense the fossil record can usually support limited anatomical and behavioral inferences. Nonetheless, information from fossil species is, in any case, particularly valuable, because it represents the only direct proof of cerebral and behavioral changes throughout the human phylogeny. Recently, archeology and psychology have been integrated in the field of cognitive archeology, which aims to interpret current cognitive models according to the evidence we have on extinct human species. In this article, such evidence is reviewed in order to consider whether and to what extent the archeological record can supply information regarding changes of the attentional system in different taxa of the human genus. In particular, behavioral correlates associated with the fronto-parietal system and working memory are employed to consider recent changes in our species, Homo sapiens, and a mismatch between attentional and visuospatial ability is hypothesized. These two functional systems support present-moment awareness and mind-wandering, respectively, and their evolutionary unbalance can explain a structural sensitivity to psychological distress in our species.

The brain of Homo habilis: Three decades of paleoneurology

In 1987, Phillip Tobias published a comprehensive anatomical analysis of the endocasts attributed to Homo habilis, discussing issues dealing with brain size, sulcal patterns, and vascular traces. He suggested that the neuroanatomy of this species evidenced a clear change toward many cerebral traits associated with our genus, mostly when concerning the morphology of the frontal and parietal cortex. After more than 30 years, the fossil record associated with this taxon has not grown that much, but we have much more information on cranial and brain biology, and we are using a larger array of digital methods to investigate the paleoneurological variation observed in the human genus. Brain volume, the size of the frontal lobe, or the gross hemispheric asymmetries are still relevant issues, but they are considered to be less central than before. More attention is instead being paid to the cortical organization, the relationships with the cranial architecture, and the influence of molecular or ecological factors. Although the field of paleoneurology can currently count on a larger range of tools and principles, there is still a general lack of anatomical information on many endocranial traits. This aspect is probably crucial for the agenda of paleoneurology. More importantly, the whole science is undergoing a delicate change, because of the growing influence of the social environment. In this sense, the disciplines working with fossils (and, in particular, with brain evolution) should take particular care to maintain a healthy professional situation, avoiding an excess of speculation and overstatement.

The parietal lobe evolution and the emergence of material culture in the human genus

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.

Visualizing Research Trends on Culture Neuroscience (2008–2021): A Bibliometric Analysis

Recently, cultural neuroscience has gained attention as a new, important, and interdisciplinary topic in the field of neuroscience. It helps us understand the interaction of cultural and biological factors over the course of life. This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the field to readers and potential researchers engaged in cultural neuroscience research. A bibliometric analysis was performed on 113 articles in the field of cultural neuroscience from 2008 to 2021 using data from the core collection of Web of Science. Network visualization software VOSviewer and ITGInsight were used for performance analysis and science mapping. Specifically, the performance analysis included countries, institutions, authors, papers, and journals, while science mapping analyzed the collaboration network, keyword network, bibliographic coupling network, and time series evolution. The results showed that the United States was the most productive country, Northwestern University was the most influential research institution, Chiao Jy was the most influential scholar, and “Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience” made the greatest contribution to publishing in the field of cultural neuroscience. Furthermore, collaboration is expected to be the development trend in the future. The key research topics in the field of cultural neuroscience included neuroimaging and psychiatric diseases, theoretical methods, interdisciplinary research, cultural differences (collectivism and individualism), and brain functions. Finally, future research will focus on cultural neuroscience, culture, and self, while adolescence will be the emerging research frontier.

Visual Attention and Cognitive Archaeology: An Eye-Tracking Study of Palaeolithic Stone Tools

The study of lithic technology can provide information on human cultural evolution. This article aims to analyse visual behaviour associated with the exploration of ancient stone artefacts and how this relates to perceptual mechanisms in humans. In Experiment 1, we used eye tracking to record patterns of eye fixations while participants viewed images of stone tools, including examples of worked pebbles and handaxes. The results showed that the focus of gaze was directed more towards the upper regions of worked pebbles and on the basal areas for handaxes. Knapped surfaces also attracted more fixation than natural cortex for both tool types. Fixation distribution was different to that predicted by models that calculate visual salience. Experiment 2 was an online study using a mouse-click attention tracking technique and included images of unworked pebbles and 'mixed' images combining the handaxe's outline with the pebble's unworked texture. The pattern of clicks corresponded to that revealed using eye tracking and there were differences between tools and other images. Overall, the findings suggest that visual exploration is directed towards functional aspects of tools. Studies of visual attention and exploration can supply useful information to inform understanding of human cognitive evolution and tool use.

Children and innovation: play, play objects and object play in cultural evolution

Cultural evolutionary theory conceptualises culture as an information-transmission system whose dynamics take on evolutionary properties. Within this framework, however, innovation has been likened to random mutations, reducing its occurrence to chance or fortuitous transmission error. In introducing the special collection on children and innovation, we here place object play and play objects - especially functional miniatures - from carefully chosen archaeological contexts in a niche construction perspective. Given that play, including object play, is ubiquitous in human societies, we suggest that plaything construction, provisioning and use have, over evolutionary timescales, paid substantial selective dividends via ontogenetic niche modification. Combining findings from cognitive science, ethology and ethnography with insights into hominin early developmental life-history, we show how play objects and object play probably had decisive roles in the emergence of innovative capabilities. Importantly, we argue that closer attention to play objects can go some way towards addressing changes in innovation rates that occurred throughout human biocultural evolution and why innovations are observable within certain technological domains but not others.

Storage of Information and Its Implications for Human Development: A Dialectic Approach

How has the storage of information shaped human cognition? We bring together current advances in cognitive science, the neurobiology of memory, and archeology to explore how storage of information affects consciousness. These fields strongly suggest that the increase in storage of information in the environment - which we call exosomatic storage of information - may have led to changes in human consciousness and human neurophysiology over time. To bring these findings together conceptually, we develop what we call a dialectical model of the relationship between storage of information and the development of human consciousness. Using the system of dialectic philosophy, we put forward that (a) environmental changes, consciousness, and neurophysiology develop together, (b) these changes were irreversible, (c) quantitative increases in exosomatic storage of information may have led to qualitative changes in human consciousness and neurophysiology, (d) these changes in turn affected how we see ourselves. Indeed, our capacity to store information exosomatically distinguishes us from other animals, and may be a key attribute of our self-awareness and therefore self-consciousness. Because metaphors are central to human thought and can help structure scientific inquiry, we illustrate our model using a metaphor of drops of silver on the back of a glass, eventually making a mirror - where successive quantitative change leads to an irreversible qualitative development in human consciousness. The dialectic model can offer new insights into the co-evolution of material culture and human beings through its broader philosophical foundations and explanatory power.

Hand morphometrics, electrodermal activity, and stone tools haptic perception

OBJECTIVES

Tool use requires integration among sensorial, biomechanical, and cognitive factors. Taking into account the importance of tool use in human evolution, changes associated with the genus Homo are to be expected in all these three aspects. Haptics is based on both tactile and proprioceptive feedbacks, and it is associated with emotional reactions. Previous analyses have suggested a difference between males and females, and during haptic exploration of different typologies of stone tools. Here, we analyze the correlation between electrodermal reactions during stone tool handling and hand morphology to provide evidence of possible allometric factors shared by males and females.

METHODS

Electrodermal analysis was used to investigate some specific parameters involved in these reactions, such as changes in the level of attention and arousal. We analyzed the responses of 46 right-handed adults to 20 distinct stone tools while blindfolded.

RESULTS

Females have smaller hands and a wider range of electrodermal reactions. Within males and females, hand diameters and general hand size do not correlate with the degree of electrodermal level and response.

CONCLUSIONS

Sex differences in electrodemal reaction during stone tool handling are apparently not due to the effect of hand size or proportions. Differences between males and females are better interpreted as real sex differences, either due to a biological or cultural influences. Hand size does not influence the degree of arousal or attention during tool exploration, suggesting that other factors trigger individual reactions. These results add to a general cognitive approach on hand-tool evolution and tool sensing.

Human paleoneurology: Shaping cortical evolution in fossil hominids

Evolutionary neuroanatomy must integrate two different sources of information, namely from fossil and from living species. Fossils supply information concerning the process of evolution, whereas living species supply information on the product of evolution. Unfortunately, the fossil record is partial and fragmented, and often cannot support validations for specific evolutionary hypotheses. Living species can provide more comprehensive indications, but they do not represent ancestral groups or primitive forms. Macaques or chimpanzees are frequently used as proxy for human ancestral conditions, despite the fact they are divergent and specialized lineages, with their own biological features. Similarly, in paleoanthropology independent lineages (such as Neanderthals) should not be confused with ancestral modern human stages. In this comparative framework, paleoneurology deals with the analysis of the endocranial cavity in extinct species, in order to make inferences on brain evolution. A main target of this field is to distinguish the endocranial variations due to brain changes, from those due to cranial constraints. Digital anatomy and computed morphometrics have provided major advances in this field. However, brains and endocasts can be hard to analyze with geometrical models, because of uncertainties due to the localization of cortical landmarks and boundaries. The study of the evolution of the parietal cortex supplies an interesting case-study in which paleontological and neontological data can integrate and test evolutionary hypotheses based on multiple sources of evidence. The relationships with visuospatial functions and brain-body-tool integration stress further that the analysis of the cognitive system should go beyond the neural boundaries of the brain.

Understanding the effects of materiality on mental health

SummaryConsensus is growing, in many areas of the humanities and social sciences, that aspects of the material world we live in have causal efficacy on our minds - the major dynamic being the plasticity of the brain linked to the affordances of our bodily engagements with things. The implications of that on how we approach and understand important mental health issues have not been adequately addressed. This paper proposes a material engagement approach to the study of the processes by which different forms of materiality achieve their effects. Focusing on the example of dementia, I propose that a collaboration between archaeology, anthropology, philosophy and psychiatry could help us to fill this gap in our knowledge, allowing us to understand the exact effects of everyday objects, personal possessions and forms of material engagement on people with dementia.Declaration of interestNone.

Visuospatial Integration and Hand-Tool Interaction in Cognitive Archaeology

Testing cognitive hypotheses in extinct species can be challenging, but it can be done through the integration of independent sources of information (e.g., anatomy, archaeology, neurobiology, psychology), and validated with quantitative and experimental approaches. The parietal cortex has undergone changes and specializations in humans, probably in regions involved in visuospatial integration. Visual imagery and hand-eye coordination are crucial for a species with a remarkable technological and symbolic capacity. Hand-tool relationships are not only a matter of spatial planning but involve deeper cognitive levels that concern body cognition, self-awareness, and the ability to integrate tools into body schemes, extending the body's functional and structural range. Therefore, a co-evolution between body and technology is to be expected not only in terms of anatomical correspondence but also in terms of cognitive integration. In prehistory, lithic tools are crucial in the interpretation of the cognitive abilities of extinct human species. The shape of tools and the grasping patterns associated with the corresponding haptic experience can supply some basic quantitative approaches to evaluate changes in the archaeological record. At the physiological level, electrodermal activity can be used as proxy to investigate the cognitive response during haptic experiences, revealing differences between tools and between subjects. These approaches can be also useful to evaluate whether and to what extent our complex cognitive resources are based on the capacity to export and delegate functions to external technological components.

Causal Cognition, Force Dynamics and Early Hunting Technologies

With this contribution we analyze ancient hunting technologies as one way to explore the development of causal cognition in the hominin lineage. Building on earlier work, we separate seven grades of causal thinking. By looking at variations in force dynamics as a central element in causal cognition, we analyze the thinking required for different hunting technologies such as stabbing spears, throwing spears, launching atlatl darts, shooting arrows with a bow, and the use of poisoned arrows. Our interpretation demonstrates that there is an interplay between the extension of human body through technology and expanding our cognitive abilities to reason about causes. It adds content and dimension to the trend of including embodied cognition in evolutionary studies and in the interpretation of the archeological record. Our method could explain variation in technology sets between archaic and modern human groups.

Neural systems for reflected and direct self-appraisals in Chinese young adults: Exploring the role of the temporal-parietal junction

OBJECTIVES

Although cortical midline structures (CMS) are the most commonly identified neural foundations of self-appraisals, research is beginning to implicate the temporal-parietal junction (TPJ) in more interdependent self-construals. The goal of this study was to extend this research in an understudied population by (a) examining both direct (first-person) and reflected (third-person) self-appraisals across 2 domains (social and academics), and (b) exploring individual differences in recruitment of the TPJ during reflected self-appraisals.

METHOD

The neural correlates of direct and reflected self-appraisals in social and academic domains were examined in 16 Chinese young adults (8 males, 8 females; aged 18-23 years) using functional MRI.

RESULTS

As expected, when making reflected self-appraisals (i.e., reporting what they believed others thought about them, regardless of domain), Chinese participants recruited both CMSs and the TPJ. Similar to previous research in East Asian and interdependent samples, CMSs and the TPJ were relatively more active during direct self-appraisals in the social than in the academic domain. We additionally found that, to the extent participants reported that reflected academic self-appraisals differed from direct academic self-appraisals, they demonstrated greater engagement of the TPJ during reflected academic self-appraisals. Exploratory cross-national comparisons with previously published data from American participants revealed that Chinese young adults engaged the TPJ relatively more during reflected self-appraisals made from peer perspectives.

CONCLUSIONS

In combination with previous research, these findings increase support for a role of the TPJ in self-appraisal processes, particularly when Chinese young adults consider peer perspectives. The possible functional contributions provided by the TPJ are explored and discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

From Neural Synapses to Culture-Historical Boundaries: An Archaeological Comment on the Plastic Mind

This paper contributes with a study of how something that is initially introduced as a ‘technology of spatial distribution’ develops into a ‘technology of the mind’. Boundaries are a phenomenon deeply rooted in social perception and cognitive categorization, which also involves material processes that can sometimes be studied in an archaeological record. In later prehistory, the physical instantiation of this technology offered a solution to a wide range of economic and social problems, posed by an increasingly filled-in and more permanently settled landscape. Important aspects of its initial conceptual and cultural incorporation lasted more than a millennium. However, once this technology attached conceptually as well as culturally, it entailed a quantitative acceleration and became part of a long-term development, the social and juridical consequences of which can be traced far up in historical times. This case is used to discuss the importance of unfolding both the plastic aspects of human cognition and the slow, protracted and long-term aspects involved in cultural changes.

The man who feels two hearts: the different pathways of interoception

Recent advances in neuroscience have provided new insights into the understanding of heart-brain interaction and communication. Cardiac information to the brain relies on two pathways, terminating in the insular cortex (IC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), along with the somatosensory cortex (S1-S2). Interoception relying on these neuroanatomical pathways has been shown to modulate social cognition. We report the case study of C.S., a patient with an 'external heart' (an extracorporeal left-univentricular cardiac assist device, LVAD). The patient was assessed with neural/behavioral measures of cardiac interoception complemented by neuropsychological and social cognition measures. The patient's performance on the interoception task (heartbeat detection) seemed to be guided by signals from the artificial LVAD, which provides a somatosensory beat rather than by his endogenous heart. Cortical activity (HEP, heartbeat-evoked potential) was found decreased in comparison with normal volunteers, particularly during interoceptive states. The patient accurately performed several cognitive tasks, except for interoception-related social cognition domains (empathy, theory of mind and decision making). This evidence suggests an imbalance in the patient's cardiac interoceptive pathways that enhances sensation driven by the artificial pump over that from the cardiac vagal-IC/ACC pathway. A patient with two hearts, one endogenous and one artificial, presents a unique opportunity to explore models of interoception and heart-brain interaction.

Mindful art

Bullot & Reber (B&R) begin asking if the study of the mind's inner life can provide a foundation for a science of art. Clearly there are many epistemological problems involved in the study of the cognitive and affective basis of art appreciation. I argue that context is key. I also propose that as long as the "mind's life" continues to be perceived as an "inner" intracranial phenomenon, little progress can be made. Mind and art are one.

Prosthetic gestures: how the tool shapes the mind

I agree with Vaesen that it is a mistake to discard tool use as a hallmark of human cognition. I contend, nonetheless, that tools are not simply external markers of a distinctive human mental architecture. Rather, they actively and meaningfully participate in the process by which hominin brains and bodies make up their sapient minds.

Cultural neuroscience of the self: understanding the social grounding of the brain

Cultural neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field of research that investigates interrelations among culture, mind and the brain. Drawing on both the growing body of scientific evidence on cultural variation in psychological processes and the recent development of social and cognitive neuroscience, this emerging field of research aspires to understand how culture as an amalgam of values, meanings, conventions, and artifacts that constitute daily social realities might interact with the mind and its underlying brain pathways of each individual member of the culture. In this article, following a brief review of studies that demonstrate the surprising degree to which brain processes are malleably shaped by cultural tools and practices, the authors discuss cultural variation in brain processes involved in self-representations, cognition, emotion and motivation. They then propose (i) that primary values of culture such as independence and interdependence are reflected in the compositions of cultural tasks (i.e. daily routines designed to accomplish the cultural values) and further (ii) that active and sustained engagement in these tasks yields culturally patterned neural activities of the brain, thereby laying the ground for the embodied construction of the self and identity. Implications for research on culture and the brain are discussed.