International collaboration reveals how the human brain evolved to harness abstract thought
Apr 2022, phys.org
"Surprisingly, our results showed that in all species other than humans, the brain areas that comprise the default mode network involve two systems not strongly connected with each other," Constantinidis said. "These regions, one responsible for suppression of external events and one for more cognitive tasks, appear to be linked only recently in evolution. It is this linkage that may have facilitated the capacity for abstract thought that led to the rapid evolution of human cognitive abilities."
via Vanderbilt University: Christos Constantinidis & collegaues, An evolutionary gap in primate default mode network organization, Cell Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110669.
Exploring how abstract concepts are represented in the brain across cultures, languages
May 2022, phys.org
"We wanted to look across languages to see if our cultural backgrounds influence how we understand, how we perceive abstract ideas like justice."Brain scans from 20 participants, with equal representation from those who speak English and Mandarin. Participants were given 28 individual abstract concepts that spanned seven categories: social, emotion, metaphysics, law, religiosity, mathematics and scientific. While in the fMRI machine, participants would think about a prompt from one of these categories, like sacrilege in the religiosity category, for three seconds. Between each prompt, the participant would clear their mind by staring at a shrinking, blue ellipse for seven seconds. The series was repeated six times to provide multiple datasets for statistical analyses and to train and test models.The study shows that a common neural infrastructure does exist between languages. While the underlying neural regions are similar, how the areas light up is more specific to each individual."Despite each culture developing its own somewhat differing conceptions of the world, all brains organize the abstract concepts the same way, using the same brain systems."
(Not sure if it's appropriate to apply it here, but remember that all brain studies of less than 1,000 people are subject to noisy data? This study has 20.)
via Carnegie Mellon University: Robert Vargas et al, Similarities and differences in the neural representations of abstract concepts across English and Mandarin, Human Brain Mapping (2022). DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25844
Completely unrelated image above:
Pickled fetus found inside ancient Egyptian mummy
Feb 2022, phys.org
A closer look at the mummy and her fetus showed that she did not die in childbirth. They also found the mummy had been preserved with natron, a type of salt found in dry lake beds. When used to mummify a corpse, it dries out the body and also works as a disinfectant, preventing bacteria from eating the remains. The fetus remained untouched by those who had mummified the remains, which kept the womb pristine.
via the Warsaw Mummy Project: Wojciech Ejsmond et al, Further evidence to confirm the 'pregnant mummy': A reply to Saleem (2021), Journal of Archaeological Science (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2021.105504
Also: Wojciech Ejsmond et al, A pregnant ancient egyptian mummy from the 1st century BC, Journal of Archaeological Science (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2021.105371
