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Manual praxis in stone tool manufacture: implications for language evolution.
1Department of Anthropology, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Rd., Boca Raton, FL, USA.
Brain and Language
|December 3, 2014
Summary
Stone tool manufacture offers insights into the evolution of manual praxis and language. Studying the neuroscience of tool-making can help evaluate how these cognitive functions co-evolved in humans.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Evolutionary Anthropology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Broca's region in the left hemisphere is hypothesized to have parallels between manual praxis and language.
- Cognitive mechanisms underlying these functions include body schema, syntactical abilities, and fronto-parietal connectivity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the evolutionary parallels between manual praxis and language.
- To explore the role of stone tool manufacture in understanding the co-evolution of these cognitive domains.
Main Methods:
- Review of experimental paradigms and existing research on Broca's area.
- Analysis of the neuroscience of stone tool manufacture as a proxy for evolutionary studies.
Main Results:
- Stone tool manufacture provides a key line of evidence for the evolutionary development of traits associated with manual praxis and language.
- This approach can inform competing hypotheses on the co-evolution of cognitive domains.
Conclusions:
- The neuroscience of stone tool manufacture is a viable proxy for understanding the evolutionary aspects of manual praxis and language.
- This research offers critical insights into the co-evolution of human cognitive abilities.
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