Neuroimaging and Neuroarchaeology: a Window on Cognitive Evolution

Neuroarchaeology is an expanding research field that applies functional brain imaging techniques to participants in order to identify the cerebral regions involved in the production or perception of artefacts produced by past hominins. Neuroarchaeology allows making inferences about hominin cognitive abilities with regards to language, praxis, and cognitive control learning domains. As such, neuroarchaeology allows to postulate hypotheses about the evolution of cognition. This article reviews how neuroimaging techniques have been applied in neuroarchaeology and evaluates the novel insights gained from the merger of these fields. We further describe strategies to conduct research, propose a critical analysis of the results obtained to date, and discuss whether they could be used to propose evolutionary trends.