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

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.

Endocranial anatomy of the Guercy 1 early Neanderthal from Baume Moula‐Guercy (Soyons, Ardèche, France)

“…Recent reviews of the correlation between morphological change in hominin endocrania and changes in brain function are available for the frontal (Parks & Smaers, 2018), parietal (Bruner, 2010, 2014; Bruner et al, 2022; Bruner, Amano, et al, 2018a; Bruner, Esteve‐Altava, & Rasskin‐Gutman, 2018b; Bruner, Ogihara, & Tanabe, 2018c), temporal (Bryant & Preuss, 2018), and occipital lobes (Todorov & de Sousa, 2018) and the cerebellum (Tanabe et al, 2018; Zhang & Wu, 2021). Although our comparative description of Guercy 1 can add to these discussions, we are not contributing to them at this time for two reasons.…”

More than language: Mental time travel, mentalizing, executive attention, and the left-hemisphere interpreter in human origins.

“…Thus, the claim that a major cognitive change occurred after 200,000 BP and drove the symbolic behaviors that flourished no earlier than 50,000 BP in the Upper Paleolithic also is plausible. Moreover, the cranial structures continued to evolve even after the appearance of the so-called anatomically modern human beings (Bruner et al, 2017(Bruner et al, , 2022. These changes may have reflected underlying cortical developments that were significant in expanding multiple cognitive capacities, including language (Boeckx & Benítez-Burraco, 2014;Neubauer et al, 2018).…”

Psicofármacos, drogas y neuro-gubernamentalidad. Legalidad y “la clínica”. ¿Quién gobierna la prescripción?

“…Neuroarqueólogos emplean métodos en neurobiología (ej. PET) para estudiar la activación cerebral durante tareas conductuales consistentes en hacer y usar herramientas de piedra típicas del paleolítico inferior 11 (Bruner et al, 2022).…”