Collective Neuroplasticity in the Human Division of Labor: Theory, Evidence, and Implications

ABSTRACT The division of labor in human societies have been mainly analyzed by Adam Smith and Émile Durkheim, both from two different perspectives. However, due to the limitations of the state of knowledge and technology in their respective eras, their approach reached the end of its productivity. Contemporarily, the social sciences and life‐sciences are to an unprecedented extent melding into one another, necessitating a realignment of these disciplines. With the emergence of studies on occupational neuroplasticity, a more complete and neurologically informed account of the human division of labor becomes possible. This paper aims to integrate social theory on the division of labor with the neuroscience of neuroplasticity to offer a more comprehensive account of both the division of labor and its neuroplastic implications at the collective level. This integrative framework demonstrates how a macro‐level social organization (division of labor) shapes the macro‐level organization of the cerebral cortex through neuroplastic processes at the neurological micro‐level. The account presented here has significant social, economic, and health implications, particularly in understanding how the division of labor directs brain development and organization at the collective level and how shifts in the division of labor shifts the organization of the cerebral cortex at the individual level.