The brain-artefact interface (BAI): a challenge for archaeology and cultural neuroscience.
Cultural neuroscience provides a new approach for understanding the impact of culture on the human brain (and vice versa) opening thus new avenues for cross-disciplinary collaboration with archaeology and anthropology. Finding new meaningful and productive unit of analysis is essential for such collaboration. But what can archaeological preoccupation with material culture and long-term change contribute to this end? In this article, I introduce and discuss the notion of the brain-artefact interface (BAI) as a useful conceptual bridge between neuroplastisty and the extended mind. I argue that a key challenge for archaeology and cultural neuroscience lies in the cross-disciplinary understanding of the processes by which our plastic enculturated brains become constituted within the wider extended networks of non-biological artefacts and cultural practices that delineate the real spatial and temporal boundaries of the human cognitive map.
Malafouris
Lambros
L
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. lm243@cam.ac.uk
D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D001106:Archaeology / Q000379:methods*; D016477:Artifacts; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003469:Culture; D006801:Humans; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000379:methods*