Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T16:10:26.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Neurocognitive anthropology: What are the options?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2012

Guy Vingerhoets
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Neuropsychology, Ghent University, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. [email protected]

Abstract

Investigation of the cerebral organization of cognition in modern humans may serve as a tool for a better understanding of the evolutionary origins of our unique cognitive abilities. This commentary suggests three approaches that may serve this purpose: (1) cross-task neural overlap, referred to by Vaesen; but also (2) co-lateralization of asymmetric cognitive functions and (3) cross-functional (effective) connectivity.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arbib, M. A. (2005) From monkey-like action recognition to human language: An evolutionary framework for neurolinguistics. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28:105–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Higuchi, S., Chaminade, T., Imamizua, H. & Kawato, M. (2009) Shared neural correlates for language and tool use in Broca's area. NeuroReport 20:1376–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hubbard, E. M., Piazza, M., Pinel, P. & Dehaene, S. (2005) Interactions between number and space in parietal cortex. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6(6):435–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kroliczak, G., Piper, B. J. & Frey, S. H. (2011) Atypical lateralization of language predicts cerebral asymmetries in parietal gesture representations. Neuropsychologia 49(7):1698–702.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Orban, G. A., Claeys, K., Nelissen, K., Smans, R., Sunaert, S., Todd, J. T., Wardak, C., Durand, J. & Vanduffel, W. (2006) Mapping the parietal cortex of human and non-human primates. Neuropsychologia 44(13):2647–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pinel, P. & Dehaene, S. (2010) Beyond hemispheric dominance: Brain regions underlying the joint lateralization of language and arithmetic to the left hemisphere. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 22(1):4866.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubinov, M. & Sporns, O. (2010) Complex network measures of brain connectivity: Uses and interpretations. Neuroimage 52(3):1059–69.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stout, D., Toth, N., Schick, K. & Chaminade, T. (2008) Neural correlates of early Stone Age toolmaking: Technology, language and cognition in human evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 363(1499):1939–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vingerhoets, G., Alderweireldt, A.-S., Vandemaele, P., Cai, Q., Van, der Haegen, L., Brysbaert, M. & Achten, E. (in press) Praxis and language are linked: Evidence from co-lateralization in individuals with atypical language dominance. Cortex Google Scholar
Walsh, V. (2003) A theory of magnitude: Common cortical metrics of time, space and quantity. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7(11):483–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed