The roots of STEM: what are the evolutionary and neural bases of human mathematics and technology?

Introduction Neural exaptations represent descent via transitions to novel neural functions. A primary transition in human cognitive and neural evolution was from a predominantly socially-oriented primate brain to a brain that also instantiates and subserves science, and technology, and engineering, all of which depend on mathematics. Upon what neural substrates, and upon what evolved cognitive mechanisms, did human capacities for STEM, and especially its mathematical underpinnings, emerge? Previous theory focuses on roles for tools, language, and arithmetic in the cognitive origins of STEM, but none of these factors appears sufficient to support the transition. Methods In this article, I describe and evaluate a novel hypothesis for the neural origins and substrates of STEM-based cognition: that they are based in human kinship systems and human maximizing of inclusive fitness. Results The main evidence for this hypothesis is threefold. First, as demonstrated by anthropologists, human kinship systems exhibit complex mathematical and geometrical structures that function under sets of explicit rules, and such systems and rules pervade and organize all human cultures. Second, human kinship underlies the core algebraic mechanism of evolution, maximization of inclusive fitness, quantified as personal reproduction plus the sum of all effects on reproduction of others, each multiplied by their coefficient of relatedness to self. This is the only 'natural' equation expected to be represented in the human brain. Third, functional imaging studies show that kinship-related cognition activates frontal-parietal regions that are also activated in STEM-related tasks. In turn, the decision-making that integrates kinship levels with costs and benefits from alternative behaviors has recently been shown to recruit the lateral septum, a hub region that combines internal (from the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and other regions) and external information relevant to social behavior, using a dedicated subsystem of neurons specific to kinship. Conclusions Taken together, these lines of evidence suggest that kinship systems, and kin-associated behaviors, may represent exaptations for the origin of human STEM.