TECHNITION

On the neurocognitive origins of cumulative technological culture

ANR Project (2022-2026)

Abstract

The term Cumulative Technological Culture (CTC) describes the increase in the efficiency and complexity of tools and techniques in human populations over generations. The origin of CTC is a fascinating conundrum, considered in 2005 by the journal Science as one of the 125 big scientific questions of the millennium. The ultimate goal is to identify the key factors that have contributed to its emergence in our lineage. To date, research on this topic has been dominated by disciplines such as anthropology, evolutionary biology, or mathematics. Therefore, there is now a crucial need to investigate more deeply the neurocognitive origins of CTC to increase significantly our understanding of this phenomenon. The present project is positioned within this context, with the goal of providing insights into CTC through a research program involving several disciplines of cognitive science (experimental and differential psychology, cognitive neuroscience, neuro-archaeology, computational modelling).

Project team

François Osiurak* (PI), Emanuelle Reynaud*, Nicolas Claidière**, Mathieu Lesourd***, Yves Rossetti****, & Natalie Uomini*****

*Université Lyon 2, Lyon, France

**Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France

***Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France

****Centre de recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon, Lyon, France

*****Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

Other members: Giovanni Federico, Joël Brogniart, Alexandre Bluet, Chloé Bryche, Maximilien Metaireau, & Éléonore Tran

Publications linked to this project

Osiurak, F., & Federico, G. (2025). Rethinking causal understanding and reverse engineering through the lens of cultural ecology. Evolution and Human Behavior, 46, 106712.
Lesourd, M., Osiurak, F., Martin, J., Hague, S., Laroze, M., Clément, G., Medeiros de Bustos, E., Fargeix, G., Magnin, E., & Moulin, T. (2025). Neurocognitive mechanisms underlying action tool knowledge tasks: Specificity of tool-tool compared to hand-tool compatibility tasks. Communications Biology, 8, 552.
Bluet, A., Reynaud, E., Federico, G., Bryche, C., Lesourd, M., Fournel, A., Lamberton, F., Ibarrola, D., Rossetti, Y., & Osiurak, F. (2025). The technical-reasoning network is recruited when people observe others make or teach how to make tools: An fMRI study. iScience, 28, 111870.
Federico, G., Osiurak, F., Cavaliere, C., Tramontano, L., Ilardi, C. R., Salvatore, M., & Brandimonte (2025). Mechanical and semantic knowledge mediate the implicit understanding of the physical world. Brain and Cognition, 183, 106253.
Federico, G., Lesourd, M., Fournel, A., Bluet, A., Bryche, C., Metaireau, M., Baldi, D., Brandimonte, M. A., Soricelli, A., Rosetti, Y., & Osiurak, F. (2025). Two distinct neural pathways for mechanical versus digital technology. NeuroImage, 305, 120971.
Bryche, C., Lesourd, M., & Osiurak, F. (2025). From stone tools to fMRI, studying human cognitive evolution when the mind doesn't fossilize. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 8, 199-221.
Osiurak, F., Federico, G., Fournel, A., Gaujoux, V., Lamberton, F., Ibarrola, D., Rossetti, Y., & Lesourd, M. (2024). Shaping the physical world to our ends through the left PF technical-cognition area. eLife, 13, RP94578.
Bluet, A., Osiurak, F., & Reynaud, E. (2024). Innovation rate and population structure moderate the effect of population size on cumulative technological culture. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11, 649.
Osiurak, F., Federico, G., Bryche, C., Bluet, A., Metaireau, M., Tran, E., Brogniart, J., & Claidière, N. (2024). The role of explanation in the evolution of technology. American Journal of Psychology, 137, 285-320.
Federico, G., Osiurak, F., Ciccarelli, G., Ilardi, C. R., Cavaliere, C., Tramontano, L., Alfano, V., Migliaccio, M., Di Cecca, A., Salvatore, M., & Brandimonte, M. A. (2023). On the functional brain networks involved in tool-related action understanding. Communications Biology, 6, 1163.
Osiurak, F., Claidière, N., & Federico, G. (2023). Cultural cognition and technology: Mechanical actions speak louder than motor actions. Comment on “Blind alleys and fruitful pathways in the comparative study of cultural cognition” by Andrew Whiten. Physics of Life Reviews, 44, 141-144.
Osiurak, F., Federico, G., & Claidière, N. (2023). Technical reasoning: Neither cognitive instinct nor cognitive gadget? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27, 339-340.
Osiurak, F., Claidière, N., & Federico, G. (2023). Bringing cumulative technological culture beyond copying versus reasoning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 27, 30-42.
Federico, G., Cavaliere, C., Reynaud, E., Salvatore, M. Brandimonte, M. A., & Osiurak, F. (2022). The Area Prostriata plays a role in technical reasoning. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 18, 12.
Federico, G., Reynaud, E., Navarro, J., Lesourd, M., Gaujoux, V., Lamberton, F., Ibarrola, D., Cavaliere, C., Alfano, V., Aiello, M., Seguin, P., Schnebelen, Brandimonte, M. A., Rossetti, Y., & Osiurak, F. (2022). The cortical thickness of the area PF of the left inferior parietal cortex mediates technical-reasoning skills. Scientific Reports, 12, 11840.
Bluet, A., Osiurak., F., Claidière, N., & Reynaud, E. (2022). Impact of technical reasoning and theory of mind on cumulative technological culture: Insights from a model of micro-societies. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9, 231.
Osiurak, F., Claidière, N., Bluet, A., Brogniart, J., Lasserre, S., Bonhoure, T., Di Rollo, L., Gorry, N., Polette, Y., Saude, A., Federico, G., Uomini, N., & Reynaud, E. (2022). Technical reasoning bolsters cumulative technological culture through convergent transformations. Science Advances, 8, eabl7446.
Mangalam, M., Fragaszy, D. M., Wagman, J., B., Day, B. M., Kelty-Stephen, D. G., Bongers, R., Stout, D. W., & Osiurak, F. (2022). On the psychological origins of tool use. Neuroscience & BioBehavioral Reviews, 134, 104521.
Osiurak, F., Cretel, C., Uomini, N., Bryche, C., Lesourd, M., & Reynaud, E. (2021). On the neurocognitive co-evolution of tool behavior and language: Insights from the massive redeployment framework. Topics in Cognitive Science, 13, 684-707.
Osiurak, F., Lasserre, S., Arbanti, J., Brogniart, J., Bluet, A., Navarro, J., & Reynaud, E. (2021). Technical reasoning is important for cumulative technological culture. Nature Human Behaviour, 5, 1643-1651.
Osiurak, F., Cretel, C., Duhau-Marmon, N., Fournier, I., Marignier, L., De Oliveira, E., Navarro, J., & Reynaud, E. (2020). The pedagogue, the engineer, and the friend: From whom do we learn? Human Nature, 31, 462-482.
Osiurak, F., & Reynaud, E. (2020). The elephant in the China shop: When technical reasoning meets cumulative technological culture. Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Response), 43, e156.
Osiurak, F., & Reynaud, E. (2020). The elephant in the room: What matters cognitively in cumulative technological culture. Behavioral and Brain Sciences (Target Article), 43, e156.
Osiurak, F., Lesourd, M., Navarro, J., & Reynaud, E. (2020). Technition: When tools come out of the closet. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15, 880-897.
Osiurak, F., De Oliveira, E., Navarro, J., & Reynaud, E. (2020). The castaway island: Distinct roles of theory of mind and technical reasoning in cumulative technological culture. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149, 58-66.
Reynaud, E., Navarro, J., Lesourd, M., & Osiurak, F. (2019). To watch is to work: A critical review of neuroimaging data on tool-use observation network. Neuropsychology Review, 29, 484-497.
De Oliveira, E., Reynaud, E., & Osiurak, F., (2019). Roles of technical reasoning, theory of mind, creativity, and fluid cognition in cumulative technological culture. Human Nature, 30, 326-340.
Osiurak, F., De Oliveira, E., Navarro, J., Lesourd, M., Claidière, N., & Reynaud, E. (2016). Physical intelligence does matter to cumulative technological culture. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 941-948.

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