Brains evolve and perhaps, just maybe, become more effective

neurobiology and components of mind

The evolving cortex in action 

What do our evolving minds-brains look like after being baking in the evolutionary oven these last tens of thousands of years? Marc Hauser (Professor of psychology and human evolutionary biology at Harvard) in the September 2009 issue of Scientific American examines this issue by comparing and distinguishing some important human mental operations that are outside the capabilities of other animals. We can do some impressive things such as: generating all kinds ideas, words, concepts; coming up with rules which we can apply over and over; mixing ideas and combining different domains of knowledge; inventing functional tools and schemes; devising symbols representing a short hand for what we experience both in the real world as well as the products of our imagination. In addition there is the ability to think abstractly which is yet one more important difference between our cognitive life and that of other creatures.  Another neuroscientist, Stanislas Dehaene, would add the ability to read to Marc Hauser’s list of well evolved mental functions. Dahaene’s recently published book ‘The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention’ provides us with many of details of the evolution of minds-brains that makes it possible for us to read.

This evolutionary perspective provides yet another look at what cognitive neuroscientists have described in detail about mental functions that tend to be particularly well developed in humans such as the ability to plan ahead, to be reflective, delay gratification, monitor how well we are doing and inhibit our impulses.

In the popular press we read about the value of ‘going with what our gut’ tells us, to pay attention to our more primitive and immediate reaction to an event. While our gut may provide us with useful information it is often not a substitute for reflection. Even in the world of finance (or public policy or science or….) the reliance on our more evolved cognitive functions can often be suppressed. Financial gurus have often been shown to overvalue intuitive prowess and discount careful analysis skills, in as a substitute for automatic gut responding. Despite their training and valuing of critical thinking they have often been shown to inappropriately generalize from specific instances of events and make specific inferences on the basis of general impressions. Greed, overconfidence, illogical reaction to loss, seeing patterns in random events, can all play a role in discounting the role of the evolutionarily more developed cognitive functions. I wonder what cognition in the real world would look like in about 100K years from now?

PS. Marc Hauser has been accused of questionable scientific conduct in reporting some of his research results. While this is still being resolved our consortium nevertheless felt that the concepts he has advanced are still useful.