Our new theory article may be of interest to those studying technological complexity in archaeology and human evolution. It gives a historical perspective & introduces heterarchy as a 'new' perspective under which this phenomenon may be studied. Open access link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Blowing Leaves in Archaeology—The Multidimensionality of Technological Complexity in Human Origins Research - Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory

Technological complexity has been a continuous trope in archaeological research from its beginnings in the nineteenth century. Based on a concept of unidirectional cultural evolution, archaeological m...

link.springer.com

Geometry is not something humans invented from scratch —congratulations to Jialin Li on her first, first author paper. More to come from this team… @spiantado.bsky.social @wenjieli.bsky.social @jialin21.bsky.social @emilymsanford.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

this was fun :) @nccrlanguage.bsky.social

NCCR Evolving Language@nccrlanguage.bsky.social · 2w ago

🎙️ Can we learn about language evolution by looking at how our ancestors made stone tools? In the new Polyvox podcast episode, Jovana Maksic @jomaksic.bsky.social talks about her PhD at the UZH, investigating brain activity during stone tool-making! 🔗 open.spotify.com/episode/4bIl...

The brain is a diverse place, why not computing? www.nature.com/articles/s42...

The brain is a diverse place, why not computing? - Nature Machine Intelligence

The brain’s architecture exhibits diversity across many temporal and spatial scales, yet our computing architectures remain largely homogeneous. Low-powered neuromorphic hardware offers a path towards...

nature.com

Bigger brains made us human... but did evolution actually select for them? 🧠 This exciting new study challenges one of the classic assumptions about human evolution 🤯 Definitely worth a read. Congrats @katharv.bsky.social!

Evolutionary drivers of encephalization and facial reduction in the genus Homo - Nature Communications

This study tests the evolutionary processes shaping the cranial morphology of the genus Homo. The authors report a limited role of gradual directional selection and underscore the importance of stabil...

nature.com

Online Now: Multi-brain neurofeedback: what are we training for?

Multi-brain neurofeedback: what are we training for?

Multi-brain neurofeedback offers new possibilities for guiding social interaction by capturing and modulating interpersonal neural dynamics in real time. We propose a hierarchical framework where neurofeedback targets shared sensory dynamics (signal), socio-cognitive processes (functional), or social outcomes (system). We highlight key methodological challenges and potential real-world therapeutic and pedagogical applications.

dlvr.it

what a great week for paleoneurology!

Zach Cofran@dizachster.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What does the most complete endocast of Homo naledi tell us about the brain and behavior of this most unexpected, recently extinct human species? #FossilFriday link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🧠🧠🧠

Edwin de Jager@edwindejager.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Hot of the press! 🧠🦴 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Digital atlas of cortical sulcal imprints on #Pan endocasts now out in open access in the @journalofanatomy.bsky.social!" @palevoprim.bsky.social, @cam-archaeology.bsky.social, @cnrsecologie.bsky.social, @fondationfyssen.bsky.social

Researchers recorded from single neurons across frontotemporal cortex in 8 awake individuals during natural speech. They show how activities of collections of cells can capture syntactic & semantic properties of words, & also dynamically incorporate sentence context to encode combinatorial info. 🗣️🧠🧪

Mapping the neuronal building blocks of human language with language models - Nature

Wide-scale recordings reveal neurons in the human brain that encode fundamental components of language such as the grammatical relationships between words, their parts of speech and the...

nature.com

Now in one place: all our episodes on human evolution, pre-history, and the challenges of reconstructing the deep past. Enjoy! open.spotify.com/playlist/2bM...

Another new report on wild chimpanzee plant tool use, this time breaking down the fundamentals of fishing for algae in Guinea (part of the @mbchimp.bsky.social project). It comes with a figure on fishing techniques that doubles as dance instructions 💃🏺🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

wow!

Linnéa Gyllingberg@gyllingberg.bsky.social · 3mo ago

What is the minimal machinery needed for complex, cognition-like behavior? With @lostintheswarm.bsky.social, we show how self-sustained calcium oscillations, diffusion, and mechanics may be enough to coordinate behavior across a single cell with no nervous system. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/

New episode!! 🎉🎙️ A conversation w/ @bergelsonlab.bsky.social & Claudia Fugazza. Babies and dogs know more about words than we realized. But do they learn words in the same ways? Or differently? And what does it mean, really, to "understand" a word? Listen: disi.org/babies-dogs-...

Semantic knowledge is key for human innovation and cultural evolution! Our paper (thread in repost), led by fantastic @anilyaman.bsky.social & rising star @ts-brain.bsky.social is out in @pnas.org! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... I will present this work at APS Barcelona (29/5), happy to chat!

Björn Lindström@bjornlindstrom.bsky.social · 10mo ago

How do humans keep inventing tools and technologies that no single person could create alone? Our new preprint, led by @anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837

Why do rituals persist? They are often treated either as attempts to influence uncertain outcomes or as practices that regulate group life. But these functions are usually blended together. In our new paper, we argue that reinforcement learning helps explain this blending.

Very interesting new work by @lingzhongfan.bsky.social & colleagues, identifying an arcuate fasciculus homolog in the marmoset brain — with implications for the evolution of the neural scaffold supporting vocal communication 🧪🧠 www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Homologous specialization of arcuate fasciculus ventrolateral frontal connectivity in marmosets and humans | PNAS

The arcuate fasciculus (af) is a crucial dorsal pathway underpinning human language, yet its weak frontal connectivity in macaques—the standard pri...

pnas.org

Andrea Migliano is Keynote at @complenet.bsky.social and she talks about “Small Worlds, Deep Roots: the cultural origins of hunter gatherer social networks”

The shift from non-figurative (geometric designs) to figurative art (animals, mostly)—and what propelled it—is one of the big enduring puzzles of cave art. We discuss a couple accounts of this shift, including @izzywisher.bsky.social's intriguing suggestion that pareidolia offered a bridge.

Many Minds podcast@manymindspod.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Exploring a cave by firelight, it's easy to "see things" in the walls. Bulges and cracks become bison or deer. Could pareidolia have inspired some of our earliest figurative art? Just one of the topics discussed in our latest episode, w/ @izzywisher.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/illuminating...

The most interesting paper of the Royal society collective intelligence isdue. 'Scaffolding minds: Human collective intelligence through space, body and material symbols' https://t.co/mYDNWUiYok

Worried about the pricy hotels in Zurich? No problem, “couch surfing” is there! #ehbea2027 Can I camp somewhere beside the Zurichsee?? ⛺️

Brains and endocasts, a whisper to a scream lawnchairanthropology.com/2026/04/15/a...

A whisper to a scream

Antoine Balzeau and colleagues (2026) have just published a large analysis and open-access dataset comparing 75 human brains and endocasts.

lawnchairanthropology.com

Now out in PTRSB!🔥 Wherein Francesco d'Errico, Ivan Colage & I track the emergence & trajectory of hominin epistemic #nicheconstruction through material culture—the alteration of the informational landscape via spaces, bodily ornaments, & artificial memory systems. #evosky #archeosky #philsky

Scaffolding minds: human collective intelligence through space, body and material symbols

Abstract. Human collective intelligence (CI)—the capacity of groups to solve problems, make decisions and acquire knowledge beyond individual capabilities—

royalsocietypublishing.org

We are offering two 4-year PhD positions in our new SNF project "The Evolutionary Roots of Altercentrism"

Nicely echoes Ursula Le Guin’s carrier bag theory - early technology as containers, not only tools or weapons

Marc Kissel@marckissel.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Awhile back I meet the brilliant Jenni French & and now been lucky to collab on a project w/ her for the last ~3 yrs. Along with Somaye Khaksar & @anthrofuentes.bsky.social our 1st project paper is out, on origins & development of mobile containers (1/n) 🧪 🧺 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Was Our Emotional Intelligence The Key Driver Of Human Evolution? Social and emotional cognition in Pleistocene hominin evolution: The role of biocultural processes 🏺🧪 @anthrofuentes.bsky.social , @marckissel.bsky.social, et al www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

1/5 Did diving help seals “talk”? In part, it did: life in the water selected for very fine voluntary control of breathing, and that seems to have opened the door to greater control over the voice and, eventually, vocal learning. (paper) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... by @pfcook.bsky.social

"...it remains unclear how exactly culture ‘shapes’ cognition. The study outlines four pathways: culture can privilege one cognitive process over another, prune out disfavored processes, produce new processes, or have no effect on cognition." www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

What does it mean for culture to ‘shape’ cognition?

Human culture and cognition vary widely across groups, but how exactly culture ‘shapes’ cognition remains underspecified. In this review, we outline four qualitatively different pathways by which cult...

cell.com

"Analyzing video footage and location data from headcams and GPS devices, respectively, the authors found that social information, specifically where other participants were fishing, influenced foraging behaviors, especially for women" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

High-precision tracking of human foragers reveals adaptive social information use in the wild

Foraging complexity and competitive social challenges are considered key drivers of human cognition. Yet, the decision-making mechanisms that underlie social foraging in the real world remain unknown....

science.org

While everyone is excited by early European precursors of 'writing', let's not forget the African geometrics, here Howiesons Poort oes, but also Blombos haematite, almost twice as old phys.org/news/2026-02...

Humanity's oldest geometries, engraved on ostrich eggs

At several archaeological sites in southern Africa, hundreds of highly unusual fragments of ostrich eggs have been found. Dating back more than 60,000 years, the shells were engraved by groups of Homo...

phys.org

Very interesting attempt to trace back the early evolution of a “system of conventional signs” (proto-writing system) 🧪✍️ www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Humans 40,000 y ago developed a system of conventional signs | PNAS

As humans, we store and share information. This allows us to distribute knowledge necessary for survival and to coordinate large groups. Our homini...

pnas.org