Cognitive Demands of Lower Paleolithic Toolmaking

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Dietrich Stout, Emory University; Erin Hecht, Georgia State University; Nada Khreisheh, Emory University; Bruce Bradley, University of Exeter; Thierry Chaminade, Aix Marseille Université
• Language: English
• Date: 2015-04-15
• Publisher: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2015 Stout et al.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0121804
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: PLoS ONE
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: e0121804
• End Page: e0121804
• Grant/Funding Information: Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
• Keywords: HUMAN BRAIN; Multidisciplinary Sciences; Science & Technology; Science & Technology - Other Topics; SUPERIOR FRONTAL GYRUS; ATTENTION; NETWORKS; WORKING-MEMORY; ORGANIZATION; INTRINSIC FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY; HUMAN-EVOLUTION; STONE TOOL TECHNOLOGY; CORTEX
• Research Categories: Psychology, Cognitive; Anthropology, Archaeology

Abstract

Stone tools provide some of the most abundant, continuous, and high resolution evidence of behavioral change over human evolution, but their implications for cognitive evolution have remained unclear. We investigated the neurophysiological demands of stone toolmaking by training modern subjects in known Paleolithic methods ("Oldowan", "Acheulean") and collecting structural and functional brain imaging data as they made technical judgments (outcome prediction, strategic appropriateness) about planned actions on partially completed tools. Results show that this task affected neural activity and functional connectivity in dorsal prefrontal cortex, that effect magnitude correlated with the frequency of correct strategic judgments, and that the frequency of correct strategic judgments was predictive of success in Acheulean, but not Oldowan, toolmaking. This corroborates hypothesized cognitive control demands of Acheulean toolmaking, specifically including information monitoring and manipulation functions attributed to the "central executive" of working memory. More broadly, it develops empirical methods for assessing the differential cognitive demands of Paleolithic technologies, and expands the scope of evolutionary hypotheses that can be tested using the available archaeological record.