Higher Cognitive Sequelae of the Recently Expanded Parietal Lobes in Homo sapiens

Summary

Bruner and his colleagues (Bruner et al. 2013) have demonstrated that the parietal lobes in Homo sapiens are expanded in comparison to Neandertals and Homo heidelbergensis. The traditional parietal lobe function of the brain, somatosensory integration, is thought to be among the phylogenetically oldest functions of the brain. However, recent research has shown that the parietal lobes may be critical to many of the higher cognitive functions of modern Homo sapiens. There are two regions appear to be the epicenter of parietal expansion: the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and the precuneus. The IPS has been well documented by fMRI research to have topographically dedicated neurons for the appreciation of numbers, known as numerosity. Numerosity has been shown to have two core functions: subitization, which is the ability to distinguish between one, two, and three things, an ability present in human infants and monkeys. The second is the ability to distinguish between small sets from large sets of things, known as fuzzy set comparison or analog comparison. The precuneus has been shown to be critical to autobiographical memory and future simulations. The present paper will discuss the implications of these functions as a feral basis for abstraction and modern symbolic thinking.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Cognitive Archaeology

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