Evolution of cognitive function via redeployment of brain areas



Provided by Cognitive Sciences ePrint Archive

Title: Evolution of cognitive function via redeployment of brain areas

Running head: Evolution of cognitive function

Michael L. Anderson

Institute for Advanced Computer Studies

Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science

University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 USA.
[email protected]
o: 301-405-1746
f: 301-314-1353
h: 410-323-4787

Word count (incl. abstract, references and captions): 3981

Keywords: Adaptation, Physiological; Brain; Cortex; Cognition; Evolution

Abstract

The creative re-use of existing cognitive capacities may have played a significant role in
the evolutionary development of the brain. There are obvious evolutionary advantages to
such redeployment, and the data presented here confirm three important empirical
predictions of this account of the development of cognition: (1) a typical brain area will
be utilized by many cognitive functions in diverse task categories, (2) evolutionarily
older brain areas will be deployed in more cognitive functions and (3) more recent
cognitive functions will utilize more, and more widely scattered brain areas. These
findings have implications not just for our understanding of the evolutionary origins of
cognitive function, but also for the practice of both clinical and experimental
neuroscience.



More intriguing information

1. Tourism in Rural Areas and Regional Development Planning
2. THE WELFARE EFFECTS OF CONSUMING A CANCER PREVENTION DIET
3. Fiscal Reform and Monetary Union in West Africa
4. Structural Influences on Participation Rates: A Canada-U.S. Comparison
5. The name is absent
6. Testing Gribat´s Law Across Regions. Evidence from Spain.
7. Insecure Property Rights and Growth: The Roles of Appropriation Costs, Wealth Effects, and Heterogeneity
8. Growth and Technological Leadership in US Industries: A Spatial Econometric Analysis at the State Level, 1963-1997
9. Legal Minimum Wages and the Wages of Formal and Informal Sector Workers in Costa Rica
10. The name is absent
11. The name is absent
12. The name is absent
13. Financial Market Volatility and Primary Placements
14. An Efficient Circulant MIMO Equalizer for CDMA Downlink: Algorithm and VLSI Architecture
15. Konjunkturprognostiker unter Panik: Kommentar
16. How Low Business Tax Rates Attract Multinational Headquarters: Municipality-Level Evidence from Germany
17. Conditions for learning: partnerships for engaging secondary pupils with contemporary art.
18. The name is absent
19. Structural Breakpoints in Volatility in International Markets
20. The name is absent