The technical-reasoning network is recruited when people observe others make or teach how to make tools: An fMRI study

Abstract

Cumulative technological culture is defined as the increase in efficiency and complexity of tools and techniques over generations. While the role of social cognitive skills in cultural transmission has been long acknowledged, recent accounts have emphasized that non-social cognitive skills such as technical reasoning, a form of causal reasoning aimed at understanding the physical world, are also at work during the social transmission of technical content. Here we contribute to this double process approach by reporting an fMRI study about the neurocognitive origins of social learning. Participants were shown videos depicting tool-making episodes in three social-learning conditions: Reverse engineering, Observation and Teaching. Our results showed that the technical-reasoning network, centred around the Area PF of the left inferior parietal cortex, was preferentially activated when watching tool-making episodes. Additionally, the teaching component was related to an activation of the right middle temporal gyrus. We propose that technical reasoning is at the heart of our technological culture and that the role of social cognition and teaching is to improve the learners technical reasoning by helping them concentrate on important parts of the technology. Thus, both technical reasoning and social-cognitive skills may play a key role in the cultural evolution of our technologies.