Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Stone Tools and the Brain: A Positron Emission Tomographic Study

在Nicholas Toth博士的指导下，Dietrich Stout先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。这项研究的目标是深入了解早期人类的认知能力，为了实现这一目标，斯托特先生将研究与生产简单的“模式1”石器有关的大脑活动。第一个这样的物体出现在考古记录中。2.5由于它们的持久性，在人类进化的大部分时期，它们构成了重建行为的主要证据。它们提供了对早期人类心智能力最好的、通常也是唯一的洞察。考古学家已经通过实验复制了模式1的工具，这些工具包括从更大的原材料核心中取出的简单薄片，以及随后的更复杂的石器技术。然而，很难在这些制造技术和认知组织之间建立直接联系。目前还不清楚制造简单石器所需的最低基本认知能力是什么，以及早期人类能够进行抽象思维的程度。为了解决这个问题，Stout先生将进行正电子发射断层扫描（PET），通过建立燧石敲击和大脑激活之间更直接的联系来确定心理能力。6名技术幼稚受试者将参与纵向研究。将收集三种实验条件（对照、新手燧石敲击和经验丰富的燧石敲击）的PET图像。使用缓慢衰减的示踪剂进行成像将允许在图像收集之前在扫描仪外部的相对自然的条件下执行实验任务。将收集三种类型的数据：PET图像，所产生的工具的属性，以及任务执行的录像带。这些数据将追求的主要研究目标是1。解剖感觉运动和认知方面的燧石knapping技能和2。探索技能获得的神经、人工和行为方面。PET图像数据将用于检验从文献和试点研究结果中得出的特定假设。特别令人感兴趣的将是假定激活的“认知规划”领域的新手和潜在的重叠与经典的皮质“语言”（布罗卡和韦尼克）地区。研究的最终目的是将研究结果应用于人类起源的考古学。实验神经科学的大量研究现在允许从运动或战略规划等心理过程的角度来解释大脑激活的模式。以这种方式，成像的工具复制实验将提供深入了解必要的信息处理要求的特定flintknapping任务。这种见解可以明智地应用于对考古记录的认知解释。

Under the direction of Dr. Nicholas Toth, Mr. Dietrich Stout will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. The goal of the research is to gain insight into the cognitive abilities of early humans and to accomplish this, Mr. Stout will examine the brain activity associated with the production of simple "Mode 1" stone tools. The first such objects appear in the archaeological record ca. 2.5 million years ago and because of their durable nature, over most of the period of human evolution they comprise the primary evidence available to reconstruct behavior. They provide the best, and often, the only insight into early human mental ability. Archaeologists have experimentally replicated Mode 1 tools which consist of simple flakes removed from a larger core of raw material as well as the successively more complicated succeeding lithic technologies. However it is difficult to draw a direct link between these manufacturing techniques and cognitive organization. It is unknown exactly what minimal basic cognitive abilities are necessary to produce simple stone tools and the degree to which early humans were capable of abstract thought. To address this problem, Mr. Stout will conduct Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to determine mental ability by establishing a more direct link between flintknapping and brain activation. Six technologically naive subjects will participate in a longitudinal study. PET images of three experimental conditions (control, novice flintknapping and experienced flintknapping) will be collected. Use of a slowly decaying tracer for imaging will allow experimental tasks to be performed under relatively naturalistic conditions outside a scanner, prior to image collection. Three kinds of data will be collected: PET images, attributes of the tools produced, and videotapes of task performance. The main research goals to be pursued with these data will be 1. dissection of sensorimotor and cognitive aspects of flintknapping skill and 2. exploration of neural, artifactual and behavioral aspects of skill acquisition. PET image data will be used to test specific hypotheses derived from both the literature and from results of a pilot study. Of particular interest will be putative activation of "cognitive planning" areas in novices and potential overlap with classic cortical "language" (Broca's and Wernicke's) areas. The ultimate objective of the research is to apply the results to the archaeology of human origins. A large body of research in the experimental neurosciences now allows patterns of brain activation to be interpreted in terms of mental processes such as motor or strategic planning. In this fashion, imaging of tool replication experiments will provide insight into the necessary information processing requirements of particular flintknapping tasks. This insight may then be judiciously applied to cognitive interpretations of the archaeological record.