The neural basis of transactive technical cognition

Human societies are organized around the division of labor and cultural specialization. This organization is effective only if individuals can represent their own and others' technical cognition skills and adjust them according to the nature of the collaborative activity. We conducted a behavioral (n = 30) and an fMRI (n = 29) experiment to investigate these adjustments in two collaborative activities: Delegation and teaching. Here we show that, when individuals delegate a technical task to an expert, they partially disengage the technical reasoning network (left area PF, left inferior frontal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) they recruit when planning to perform the task themselves in favor of the social reasoning network (temporal pole, temporo-parietal junction, and anterior medial prefrontal cortex) that helps them represent the expert's skills. When individuals envision being taught by an expert, they preferentially recruit both networks, forming an integrative representation of their own and the expert's skills. This integrative representation may serve as the foundation for "who" social learning strategies by enabling individuals to estimate the knowledge gap between themselves, as learners, and a potential teacher, much like teachers do when planning to teach a learner. Individuals also use this integrative representation when considering following a Web tutorial, confirming that the Internet, and other technologies, can be the targets of transactive processes. Taken together, these findings open new avenues for understanding how transactive technical cognition has co-evolved with cultural specialization and supports human-technology interactions.