Evolution of cognitive function via redeployment of brain areas

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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.

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