Derek Hodgson

The earliest known engravings display a concern for repetitive lines and motifs that date from over 500,000 years ago onwards, which has led to a variety of suggestions as to their significance. Of the three main competing hypotheses as to their import, one—based on neuroimaging evidence—posits that they are fully symbolic, whereas the second propo...

Published in "Nodes: Journal of Art and Neuroscience". The factors that led to the invention of figurative depictions remain a mystery. However, with recent discoveries in archaeology and research in visual psychology, as well as the neuroscience of vision, great strides have been made in resolving the issue. In this article, the insights from th...

The earliest known engravings display a concern for repetitive lines and motifs that date from over 500,000 years ago onwards, which has led to a variety of suggestions as to their significance. Of the three main competing hypotheses as to their import, one-based on neuroimaging evidence-posits that they are fully symbolic, whereas the second propo...

Why did early hunter-gatherers engage in the arts when that time could have been more profitably spent dealing with the demands of survival?

There has been much debate as to how writing first came about in several locations throughout the world. The means by which writing evolved is considered to be a product of cultural variables that provided the context from which different writing systems emerged. Recent neuroimaging research, however, has found correspondences that pertain to al...

Pareidolia (seeing meaningful things in patterns) is regarded as a concept that can help identify and interpret rock art. However, its usefulness is deceptive and, consequently, can give rise to significant problems with interpretation because it is such a fundamental attribute of the human visual system. In this paper, I show that the heuristics...

Symbolic cognition—the ability to produce and use symbols, including (but not limited to) linguistic symbols—has often been considered a hallmark of human achievement. Given its importance, symbolic cognition has been a major topic of interest in many academic disciplines including anthropology, archeology, and the cognitive sciences.1–6 Paleolithi...

Since the Neurovisual Resonance Theory (NRT) was first presented as a way of understanding the preference of fossil humans for certain geometric forms, intense neuroscientific research has provided intriguing insights as to its relevance. The theory presented a novel approach to issues concerning the increasing interest in the symmetry of Achuelean...

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note...

When did information first become a material commodity susceptible to human manipulation? This book seeks to answer that question by detailing the ancient precursors and how they eventually gave rise to writing and modern digital information systems through outsourcing cortical systems. Given that during early human evolution information mainly unf...

The paper by Salagnon et al 2022 claims to provide support for an earlier study by the same research group (Mellet et al. 2019) purporting to demonstrate that the earliest engravings are representational or symbolic. In both the recent and earlier papers they assert that Hodgson’s approach to the engravings is falsified due to the fact that their f...

La propuesta de Lewis-Williams y Dowson (1988, 1993) de que muchas de las marcas abstractas que se encuentran en el arte paleolítico y neolítico, pueden atribuirse a procesos neurofisiológicos, determinados por prácticas chamánicas, ha sido motivo de considerable debate. En el lado positivo, ha ayudado a abrir un nuevo enfoque de este aspecto del a...

Perceptual psychology has provided a number of revealing insights into the phenomenon of palaeoart. The value of the discipline is underlined by the fact that it has provided new ways of exploring how Upper Palaeolithic cave art first arose, both on a theoretical and a practical level. Despite this, the approach has been accused of overstating the...

The engraved bone of Nesher Ramla is regarded by Prévost et al., as symbolic. The authors, however, fail to consider other possible interpretations that do not rely on symbolic criteria. In this commentary, a more compelling interpretation of the intentional marks is described based on a proto-aesthetic interest with respect to the Neurovisual Reso...

Abstract Writing systems are considered to be purely cultural. Recent neuroimaging research, however, suggests a more nuanced scenario, especially as a specific brain region of the visual cortex has been found to be common to all writing systems. Neurorecycling of evolutionary defined cortical networks is now thought to be key to understanding such...

This paper provides a commentary on an article by Mellet et al (2019), which points out a number of inaccuracies and misinterpretations of neuroscientific data regarding the significance of the earliest engravings in the archaeological record.

The symmetry of Acheulean bifaces has been the focus of much controversy. This controversy has intensified with the discovery of increasing numbers of symmetrical handaxes from various archaeological horizons. Whether such discoveries can inform us about the cognitive profile of their makers is still a provocative question. Nevertheless, some progr...

Mellet et al. in their response to Hodgson’s (2019) paper endeavour to defend the proposition that the earliest engravings are representational and possibly symbolic. Hodgson’s Neurovisual Resonance Theory (NRT), however, contends that such engravings can be accounted for by long-standing evolutionary factors that shaped the early visual cortex in...

Why ancient humans first began to represent animals is a question that has led to a bewildering number of theories since cave art was discovered in the 19th century. Drawing on insights from visual science, evolution, and art theory, the book takes the reader on a unique and intriguing journey showing how the development of visual imagery in the hu...

Spatial cognition is fundamental to producing stone tools, with specific, dedicated neuronal pathways. These arise from primary sensory areas and later interact with higher-level pathways for increasingly complex purposes. These higher processes involve visuospatial memory, visuomotor control, attention, and planning. Although clarifying the way th...

The growing corpus of non-functional geometric marks produced by different hominins has spawned considerable debate as to their significance. Some authorities claim the marks are in some way representational or symbolic while others are more cautious and view them as pre-symbolic in that they may derive from a proto-aesthetic bias linked to how the...

Archaeologists have struggled for more than a century to explain why the first representational art of the Upper Palaeolithic arose and the reason for its precocious naturalism. Thanks to new data from various sites across Europe and further afield, as well as crucial insights from visual science, we may now be on the brink of bringing some clarity...

Archaeologists have struggled for more than a century to explain why the first representational art of the Upper Palaeolithic arose and the reason for its precocious naturalism. Thanks to new data from various sites across Europe and further afield, as well as crucial insights from visual science, we may now be on the brink of bringing some clarity...

The notion that the “Q” shaped motifs in Upper Palaeolithic art represent vulvae has become accepted dogma. This assumption is critically examined by showing that such motifs more closely resemble hoof prints. A number of examples of hoof prints made by large herbivores are illustrated highlighting this correspondence, which suggests such motifs sh...

https://theconversation.com/whats-the-point-of-art-77118

Parallels are often made between the culture of San hunter-gatherers of southern Africa and that of European Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. Despite different environmental conditions and lifestyles, the fact that both groups live by hunting provides a point of comparison that can afford insights into Ice Age art. Focusing on both groups’ hunt...

This constitute a commentary of Bednarik's paper, which outlines the events leading up to a misinterpretation of rock art by certain groups due to pareidolia. The commentary shows why pareidolia can lead to such mistaken interpretations because of the influence of collective psychological pressures such as prestige bias and group norms. Cognitive d...

Parallels are often made between the culture of San hunter-gatherers of southern Africa and that of European Upper Paleolithic hunter-gatherers. Despite different environmental conditions and lifestyles, the fact that both groups live by hunting provides a point of comparison that can afford insights into Ice Age art. Focusing on both groups' hunti...

The role of the arts has become crucial to understanding the origins of ‘modern human behaviour’ but is highly controversial as it is not clear why the arts evolved and persisted. I argue that the arts evolved as a by-product of biological traits and expressions of gene culture co-evolution that facilitated group cohesion through costly signalling...

Selection pressures to better understand others’ thoughts and feelings are seen as a primary driving force in human cognitive evolution. Yet might the evolution of social cognition be more complex than we assume, with more than one strategy towards social understanding and developing a positive pro-social reputation? Here we argue that social buffe...

Accumulating finds from a number of sites in southern Africa have led to a reassessment as to when crucial human behavioral traits appeared. This has been based on the notion that the artifacts retrieved dependably track behavioral change. One of the main consequences of these finds is that some human traits have been reassigned to the Middle Stone...

The prehistoric rock art of animals and patterns (including abstract geometrical and anthropomorphic figures) embodies extra-semantic functions in the ability to communicate affect and psychologically evocative signals of vitality and engagement with life. Rock art from Isco and Sambalpur, India and Coso Range petroglyphs, in southern California we...

Renfrew’s sapient paradox refers to the perceived absence of “complex” cultural materiality from around 200,000 years ago, when anatomically modern humans first appeared, up until the onset of the Upper Palaeolithic when artefacts ostensibly underwent a sudden enrichment that presaged the settled communities of the Holocene. Over the past two decad...

The role of the arts has become crucial to understanding the origins of "modern human behaviour" but is highly controversial as it is not always clear why the arts evolved and persisted. A number of recent influential papers suggest the arts increased the survival rates of ancient populations and are, therefore, a biological adaptation but, as this...

The recent discovery that iconic depictions in caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are more ancient than those from Upper Palaeolithic Europe raises questions as to when such images first arose and why the graphic outcomes from the two locations are so similar. In this paper, we show that these questions can be addressed by exploiting the ex...

The significance of symmetry to understanding the cognitive profile of the hominins responsible for making Acheulean handaxes has been contentious. Recent finds and analytical techniques have allowed a reassessment of the relevance of symmetry to evaluating the cognition of archaic humans by highlighting differences in the shape of Early to Late Ac...

As visual information is processed by the brain in different areas to that of language, and given the fact that visual culture is closely associated with discrete regions of the visual cortex, this has implications for understanding the emergence of materially engaged practices (usually referred to as “art”). In addition, visual perception, imagery...

The final publication is available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13752-014-0182-y The role of the arts has become crucial to understanding the origins of “modern human behavior,” but continues to be highly controversial as it is not always clear why the arts evolved and persisted. This issue is often addressed by appealing to adapt...

The Pech Merle spotted horses have been one of the key lines of evidence put forward in support of the notion Upper Palaeolithic cave depictions relate to a concern for the supernatural. Recent findings from genetics has cast doubt on this notion in confirming that such horses actually existed during the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe and therefore i...

The debate regarding the status of the Blombos ochre engravings and shell beads for gauging the timeline of when cognitive abilities and symbolic intent appeared has been controversial. This is mainly due to the fact that what is referred to as symbolic is often too loosely defined and is therefore attributed to artefacts in an indiscriminate way....

Turing instabilities are invoked by Froese, Woodward, and Ikegami in support of the neural dynamics of the primary visual cortex that give rise to subjectively experienced geometric patterns or form constants. Although the authors provide a convincing case for the relevance of such instabilities to understanding the provenance of form constants, th...

Recent research into perception, the visual brain, and neuropsychology has important implications for understanding Upper Paleolithic art. The relevant aspects of this research and how it relates to the art produced will be described. It will also be shown that the depiction of animals in caves provides particularly important evidence in this regar...

It has been assumed that the accumulating archaeological finds from the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa, including the geometric patterns on various objects from Blombos and Diepkloof, provide evidence of symbolic intent and therefore modern human behaviour. These finds, some dating back to 100,000 years ago, have led to a reassessment of the p...

Several aspects of the depiction of animals in rock art can be explained by certain perceptual correlates relating to the visual brain and evolutionary factors. Recent evidence from neuroscience and the visual brain not only corroborates this claim but provides important new findings that can help delineate which graphic features relate to biologic...

The issue as to what factors led to the behavioral and associated psychological make-up of modern humans has been beset with controversy over the past two decades. This controversy revolves around two main criteria; first, whether human behavior arrived suddenly and relatively late at the end of the Pleistocene as a result of some decisive neuro-co...

Human behavior is founded on a complex interaction of influences that derive from sources both extraneous and intrinsic to the brain. It is the ways these various influences worked together in the past to fashion modern human cognition that can help elucidate the probable course of future human endeavor. A particular concern of this chapter is the...

Two recent papers in Current Anthropology (Henshilwood and Dubreuil 2011; Shea 2011) highlight a divide between those who still believe that “modern human behavior” can be accounted for by neurocognition and those who claim that this can be better explained by behavioral ecology. Unfortunately, each paper tended to remain within its own terms of re...

There has been much debate regarding when modern human cognition arose. It was previously thought that the technocomplexes and artifacts associated with a particular timeframe during the Upper Paleolithic could provide a proxy for identifying the signature of modern cognition. It now appears that this approach has underestimated the complexity of h...

The conservatism and standardisation of Oldowan and Acheulean tools have been the focus of much debate, especially as to how such conformity over a prolonged period might be informative regarding the cognitive profile of the hominins responsible for producing such artefacts. Thanks to the advent of brain scanning techniques, recent insights into th...

Although symmetry may be important for understanding the selection of form in art over the historical period, this preference may have originally stemmed from certain basic perceptual mechanism that initially arose during prehistory. The first signs of an awareness to symmetry can be found in the archaeological record with the arrival of Acheulean...

http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/cognoculture/on_cognitive_palaeontology_and_the

Visual depictions of animals, as they flourished in the Upper Palaeolithic, are thought to be a uniquely human event and an indicator of Homo sapiens sapiens with a truly modern brain, although not a modern mind (Helvenston and Bahn 2004: 90-100). What is largely ignored here is the time depth of the process of primate evolution involved in the exp...

Most traditional explanations of rock art take either an ethnographic or inferential approach to understanding the archaeological record. One alternative, but not exclusive line of research that has shown potential for understanding such phenomena comes from the study of the psychology of perception. This vast data base includes knowledge of underl...

Neuroscientific theories of visual perception and recognition, usually with reference to the accounts of either Gibson (1973, 1979) or Marr (1982), are often referred to by psychologists who seek to understand children's drawing strategies. This type of approach has led to some interesting speculations as to why children draw in particular ways. No...

This paper will demonstrates how representational images derive from a complex interaction of factors that served as precursors to the figurative depictions of the European Upper Palaeolithic. One such precursor will be shown to consist of basic geometric forms, the making of which provided the skills necessary to be able to accentuate the perceive...

The most recent challenge to Kohn and Mithen's (1999) attempt to link symmetry in handaxes with sexual attraction (Hodgson 2009a) has itself been challenged by Hayden and Villeneuve (2009) who prefer functional explanations associated with core reduction and sharpening. However, as shown by Wynn (2002), Weban-Smith (2004) and Machin (2009) function...

The most recent challenge to Kohn and Mithen's (1999) attempt to link symmetry in handaxes with sexual attraction (Hodgson 2009a) has itself been challenged by Hayden and Villeneuve (2009) who prefer functional explanations associated with core reduction and sharpening. However, as shown by Wynn (2002), Weban-Smith (2004) and Machin (2009) function...

Animism has had a long and controversial history that has led to the topic being avoided as a subject of concern amongst scholars. Recently, however, there has been renewed interest in the subject, thanks both to a re-evaluation as to the significance of the concept and a redefining of the core principles involved. By assimilating this reappraisal...

Abstract and First Page View: It has been assumed that the most productive approach for gauging when modern human behaviour emerged consists of considering when particular artefacts appeared in the archaeological record from which inferences can then be made as to the cognitive profile of those responsible. As a result, the florescence of artefact...

It has been assumed that the most productive approach for gauging when modern human behaviour emerged consists of considering when particular artefacts appeared in the archaeological record from which inferences can then be made as to the cognitive profile of those responsible. As a result, the florescence of artefacts that appeared approximately 4...

In reply to Machin's criticism of Kohn and Mithen's (1999) 'Sexy Handaxe Theory' in a recent Antiquity debate (Machin 2008: 761-6), Mithen (2008: 766-9) states that sexual selection is still relevant to the symmetry of Acheulean handaxes because this provides the only theory that can account for the various features typical of such artefacts. This...

Several recent studies have examined human evolution with reference either to the symmetry of Acheulean tools or brain structure but although these investigations have been informative they have not generally taken into account the psychology of perception in relation to recent insights into neural pathways of the visual brain. Similarly, the inter...

Mark-making seems to have an ancient derivation, predating the representational depiction of the Upper Palaeolithic by a considerable period. Shamanic, symbolic and phosphene theories have been proposed to account for their existence. These explanations are, for various reasons, shown to be either insufficient or to lack consistency. In an attempt...

Franco-Cantabrian cave art continues to be the focus of much speculation but despite the many theories put forward there has been little progress in explaining the range of perplexing features of this ‘art’. Only by regarding such wide-ranging and anomalous characteristics as central to this debate might some progress as to derivation be possible....

There has been much discussion as to the significance of the refined symmetries that typify late Acheulian handaxes. Some investigators argue that this symmetry goes far beyond the functional requirements of a tool and may therefore be informative as to the cognitive outlook of those responsible for the end product (Wynn 2002). It certainly appears...

The structure and function of the early visual cortex has been shown to be relevant to the understanding of Pleistocene palaeoart. In order to obtain a more complete appreciation of how brain function may be relevant to this issue, it is necessary to take account of how the hominin visual cortex may relate to the visuo-motor areas. The ability to t...

Enlargement of the human brain is regarded as an important indicator determining how hominins deviated from ancestral hominids during evolution. Although brain size may be relevant, how cortical enlargement relates to the reorganisation of the intrinsic neural networks is invariably ignored. Even when reorganisation is referred to, parietal and fro...

The following is but a condensed summary of our interlocking hypotheses and in no way includes the myriad of details presented in our original paper. In that paper we noted in the “Introduction” that we were proposing one scenario in the evolution of the production of the earliest visual depictions – that did not imply that we thought it was the on...

Franco-Cantabrian cave art continues to be the focus of much speculation but despite the many theories put forward there has been little progress in explaining the range of perplexing features typical of this "art." Only by regarding such wide ranging and anomalous characteristics as central to this debate might some progress as to derivation be po...

There has been much controversy recently regarding Lewis-Williams's assertion that altered states of consciousness and shamanism can explain Palaeolithic art. Evidence now seems to be accumulating that this account is unable to provide a sustainable explanation for Upper Palaeolithic depictions. This proposition will be explored and substantiated b...

Mark making on a range of objects and the manufacture of artifacts seem to have an ancient derivation, predating the representational depiction of the Upper Paleolithic by a considerable period. In an attempt to provide a coherent explanation for the appearance and longevity of these items, I submit a theory based upon how the visual cortex and vis...

The organisation and evolution of the brain is beginning to provide clues as to how, why and when certain crucial behaviours may have arisen in hominins. As palaeoart constitutes evidence of such behaviour, it can therefore be understood within the broader context of hominin evolution as part of a series of connected biopsychosocial events that eve...

In a critical response to our paper “The Emergence of the Representation of Animals in Palaeoart: Insights from evolution and the cognitive, limbic and visual systems of the human brain” published in this journal, 23(1):3-40, (Hodgson & Helvenston 2006), Chippindale (2006:17-18) pointed out that exceptions to the common pattern that plants have min...

Recent investigations into both cognitive science and the functional derivation of the visual brain as well as evolutionary dynamics have led to new and exciting ways of interpreting art. Abstract art has often been regarded as beyond the purview of such interpretations because of the very fact that it is abstract. However, as a visually guided act...

Based upon the studies to be outlined, I will argue that the innocent eye should not be thought of as a kind of raw sensory data which, through various artistic devices, can become a focus of attention. In effect, I submit, various commentators have misrepresented this concept to the extent that it has caused much confusion in debates relating to a...

Palaeolithic Art is generally thought to be based primarily upon the explicit conscious aspects of recognition and memory. Recent research into perception and cognition, however, has revealed a ‘hidden’ substructure of processing, known as implicit perception and memory, that functions in a different way to overt modes of cognisance but, yet, by do...

Although typical viewing perspective is widely accepted as an important and consistent attribute of Upper Palaeolithic Art this feature is in danger of being taken for granted due to its very pervasiveness. Despite several useful principles having been established concerning some more formal aspects of the tradition, this has not involved an analys...

The representational art of the Upper Palaeolithic continues to be viewed largely from a socio-cultural perspective. This paper takes a radically different approach by investigating graphic mark-making in early humans as a behavioural outcome contingent on a species-specific perceptual predisposition. This is premised on the view that the human per...

The proposition of Lewis-Williams and Dowson (1988, 1993) that many of the abstract marks found in Palaeolithic and Neolithic art can be put down to neurophysiological processes, as determined by shamanistic practices, has been cause for considerable debate. On the positive side, it has helped open up a fresh approach to this aspect of art by provi...

Lower and Middle Palaeolithic abstract marks have recently become more available in the archaeological record. Theories concerning the significance of such marks have invariably concentrated upon an intended referentiality, thereby ignoring the possibility of an analysis based upon evolutionary criteria predicated on a gradual, cumulative scenario...