Evolutionary Traits of Human Cognition: An Introductory Essay on the Interface between Cultural Neuroscience and Neuroanthropology

摘要

Understanding the biological basis and their environmental influences on cognition go back to the beginnings of our evolutionary process. In the midst of successive events, different geographic and socio-cultural factors contributed to the continuous shaping of a complex neural structure toward the construction of the human mind. Cultural Neuroscience represents an emerging, interdisciplinary ?eld that investigates the bidirectional in?uence of culture and genes to brain and behavior. In turn, Neuroanthropology emerges as a relatively new ?eld of research that methodologically combines anthropology and cognitive sciences to explore links between socio-cultural paradigms and the brain. In this article, premises, concepts and paradigms are introduced and discussed in the form of a scholarly essay, in an attempt to trace a path from the origins of human nature and discuss its influences on cognition.