Biology subjects

Federico, G.

Publications and source records attributed to Federico, G..

5 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Left Area PF as a Neural Marker of Technical Reasoning

Humans possess a unique capacity for technical reasoning--the ability to infer and manipulate the causal structure of the physical world. Although this faculty is central to technological innovation, its neural substrates remain incompletely understood. Here, we show that grey matter volume in the left cytoarchitectonic area PF, within the supramarginal gyrus of the inferior parietal lobule, selectively predicts and accurately classifies technical reasoning performance in healthy adults (N = 75; 54 females; mean age = 20.92 {+/-} 3.28 years). This association persists independently of demographic factors, personality traits, and total brain volume. By contrast, grey matter volume in right prefrontal regions, examined as control areas, correlates with broader cognitive functions--namely, fluid intelligence and abstract reasoning, but not with technical reasoning. These findings support the hypothesis that the left area PF is a domain-specific substrate for technical reasoning. Situated within a parietal territory that is evolutionarily expanded in humans, this region may constitute a neural signature of the human capacity to understand and reshape the material world.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

The visual encoding of familiar and unfamiliar tools

How do we extract meaning and understand the action potential of everyday objects? In this eye-tracking study, we show that familiarity with tools modulates the temporal dynamics of their visual exploration. Twenty-five right-handed participants (14 females; mean age = 23.6 {+/-} 3.34 years) freely observed images of familiar and unfamiliar tools while their eye movements were recorded over a 1500-millisecond window. All tools were post-hoc segmented into functional and manipulative areas. Participants initially prioritized functional components--particularly for unfamiliar tools. Attention to manipulative features emerged later and remained attenuated throughout viewing. In contrast, familiar tools prompted earlier and sustained visual attention on manipulative regions, suggesting faster access to action-related representations. These results support a sequential semantic-to-sensorimotor model of object perception, in which previous knowledge facilitates the transition from semantic identification to action-related engagement.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

The Influence of Spatial Frequencies, Orientation and Familiarity on Face Stimuli Integration

When we observe an object, our visual system identifies its shape and integrates it with specific details to form a coherent representation. This coarse-to-fine approach involves rapid processing of low spatial frequency (LSF) content to generate a basic template, which aids the integration of the more detailed high spatial frequency (HSF) information. Here we explore with two experiments how the contribution of LSF and HSF integration extends to face processing. To do so, we leveraged the face inversion effect, whereby inverted faces are more difficult to recognize than upright ones. In Experiment 1, ten participants matched two familiar faces displayed in rapid succession (template and probe face, respectively). The template and the probe shared either the same SF (congruent) or had complementary SF (incongruent). In congruent conditions, HSF templates yielded better matching accuracy than LSF templates. However, in incongruent conditions, mapping LSF probes onto HSF templates was more effective, but only for upright faces. We propose that, depending on the task, holistic processing may be facilitated by detailed information. In Experiment 2, twelve participants performed the same task with both familiar and unfamiliar faces. While for familiar faces the effects were the same as Experiment 1, for unfamiliar faces the overall accuracy was better for congruent than incongruent conditions, and, crucially, it was independent of the template SF. Our results challenge the view that LSF content provides a foundational template for integrating HSF information, and instead suggest a flexible encoding of SF information, that depends on image contingencies.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

The technical-reasoning network is recruited when people observe others make or teach how to make tools: An fMRI study

Cumulative technological culture is defined as the increase in efficiency and complexity of tools and techniques over generations. While the role of social cognitive skills in cultural transmission has been long acknowledged, recent accounts have emphasized that non-social cognitive skills such as technical reasoning, a form of causal reasoning aimed at understanding the physical world, are also at work during the social transmission of technical content. Here we contribute to this double process approach by reporting an fMRI study about the neurocognitive origins of social learning. Participants were shown videos depicting tool-making episodes in three social-learning conditions: Reverse engineering, Observation and Teaching. Our results showed that the technical-reasoning network, centred around the Area PF of the left inferior parietal cortex, was preferentially activated when watching tool-making episodes. Additionally, the teaching component was related to an activation of the right middle temporal gyrus. We propose that technical reasoning is at the heart of our technological culture and that the role of social cognition and teaching is to improve the learners technical reasoning by helping them concentrate on important parts of the technology. Thus, both technical reasoning and social-cognitive skills may play a key role in the cultural evolution of our technologies.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Shaping the physical world to our ends: The left PF technical-cognition area

Our propensity to materiality, which consists in using, making, creating, and passing on technologies, has enabled us to shape the physical world according to our ends. To explain this proclivity, scientists have calibrated their lens to either low-level skills such as motor cognition or high-level skills such as language or social cognition. Yet, little has been said about the intermediate-level cognitive processes that are directly involved in mastering this materiality, that is, technical cognition. We aim to focus on this intermediate level for providing new insights into the neurocognitive bases of human materiality. Here we show that a technical-reasoning process might be specifically at work in physical problem-solving situations. We found via two distinct neuroimaging studies that the area PF (parietal F) within the left parietal lobe is central for this reasoning process in both tool-use and non-tool-use physical problem-solving and can work along with social-cognitive skills to resolve day-to-day interactions that combine social and physical constraints. Our results demonstrate the existence of a specific cognitive module in the human brain dedicated to materiality, which might be the supporting pillar allowing the accumulation of technical knowledge over generations. Intensifying research on technical cognition could nurture a comprehensive framework that has been missing in fields interested in how early and modern humans have been interacting with the physical world through technology, and how this interaction has shaped our history and culture.

neuroscience↗