Sex, mathematics, and the brain: An evolutionary perspective

2022 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 101010
Author(s):  
David C. Geary
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals An Evolutionary Perspective on the Importance of Community Relations for Quality of Life

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 588-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjørn Grinde
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Inherent Nature ◽  
The Brain

The evolutionary perspective is relevant for the study of quality of life in that the brain, including its capacity for positive and negative states of mind, has been shaped by the forces of evolution. The present text uses this perspective to discuss three questions related to the observation that human interactions are a particular important factor for well-being: (1) What is known about the inherent nature of our social propensities? (2) Is the present situation responsible for a suboptimal quality of life? (3) Are there alternatives to the organization of mainstream Western society? Based on this discussion, the question is raised as to whether it is possible to suggest improvements. Briefly, it seems possible to create conditions that enhance social relations and to the extent that happiness is considered an important objective, this is a relevant endeavor.

Obesity: An Evolutionary Perspective

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin I.M. Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Human Adults ◽  
Human Brains ◽  
Time And Energy ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
Industrial Societies ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Late Palaeolithic

The brain consumes about 20 per cent of the total energy intake in human adults. Primates, and especially humans, have unusually large brains for body size compared with other vertebrates, and fuelling these is a significant drain on both time and energy. Larger-brained primates generally eat fruit-intense diets, but human brains are so large that a reduction in gut size is needed to free up sufficient resources to allow a larger brain to be evolved, placing further pressure on foraging. The early invention of cooking increased nutrient absorption by around 30 per cent over raw food. Increasing digestibility in this way perhaps inevitably leads to risk of obesity when food is super-abundant, as it is in post-industrial societies. However, obesity has clearly been around for a long time, as suggested by the late Palaeolithic Venus figures of Europe, so it is not a novel problem.

Phenomenological Psychopathology, Neuroscience, Psychiatric Disorders, and the Intentional Arc

2018 ◽  
pp. 1064-1077
Author(s):  
Grant Gillett ◽  
Patrick Seniuk
Keyword(s):  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Basic Structure ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Mental Life ◽  
Phenomenological Philosophy ◽  
Philosophy Of Perception ◽  
The World ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Phenomenological Psychopathology ◽  
The Way

This article combines an evolutionary perspective with phenomenological philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. Neuroscience addresses the way the brain connects individuals to domains of adaptation, while Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of perception explores the way sense situates humans the world. In particular, his concept “the intentional arc” captures the basic structure of embodied mental life through purposeful action. The processes of “sedimentation” and the neuroscience of ontogeny offer a perspective on the development of cortical and subcortical neural circuits that are in to-and-fro communication with the lived body. This dynamic sheds light on the genesis of a psychological life, structures of attunement, and capacity for adaptation to the world, which are all vulnerable to disruption in psychiatric disorder.

Musical Expression, Memory, and the Brain

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Schulkin
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Motor Planning ◽  
Evolutionary Trend ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Musical Expression ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Musical Cognition ◽  
Social Expression ◽  
The Brain

This chapter examines the issue of musical sensibility as an instinct as well as the cognitive and neural capabilities that underlie musical expression, including diverse forms of memory. In particular, it considers working memory as an evolutionary trend that expanded our problem solving and social expression. The chapter first provides an overview of the link between musical sensibility and social instincts from an evolutionary perspective before discussing how music is inherently tied to movement and time, along with cognitive events, adaptation, sensory experiences, and emotional sensations. It also describes musical cognition and cognitive motor planning memory as inherent features of musical sensibility, and how musical experience affects the brain.

Is the Neural Basis of Vocalisation Different in Non-Human Primates and Homo Sapiens?

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Detlev Ploog
Keyword(s):  
Auditory System ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Nervous Control ◽  
Vocal Behaviour ◽  
The Voice ◽  
The Brain

From an evolutionary perspective, the voice was a prerequisite for the emergence of speech. Speech, the most advanced mode of vocal communication, became possible only after gradual transformations of the sound-producing system and its central nervous control, in co-evolution with the transformations of the auditory system, had taken place. The discussion suggests that the last step in the evolution of the phonatory system in the brain was the outgrowing and augmenting of the fine fibre portion of the pyramidal tract synapsing directly with the motor nuclei for the vocal cords and the tongue, so that the direct and voluntary control of vocal behaviour became possible. It holds that the answer to the question raised in the title is ‘yes’. The neural basis is in fact quite different. The chapter also explains this difference and its consequences for the evolution of language.

Mesolimbic Dopamine and the Circuitry of Reward

2017 ◽  
pp. 153-162
Author(s):  
A. J. Robison ◽  
Eric J. Nestler
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Genetic Material ◽  
Reward Processing ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Consummatory Behavior ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Brain Circuitry ◽  
And Storage ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Evolutionary Fitness

The meaning of the word reward, “payment for something good that has been done,” is useful when considering the concept from an evolutionary perspective. It is widely believed that neurocircuitry has evolved to reward behaviors contributing to evolutionary fitness, motivating individuals to perform actions that increase the likelihood of propagating their genetic material. For a behavior to be rewarding (and thus be reinforced), it must create positive emotions, but it also must induce learning and produce consummatory behavior (i.e., eating, copulating, interacting). In fact, many neural systems formerly proposed to encode feelings of reward are now understood to be more complex. Therefore, the brain circuitry underlying reward must involve regions and connections that drive feelings of pleasure, formation and storage of memories, and decision-making and behavioral output. This chapter focuses on neurocircuits associated with these aspects of reward and their integration into a network responsible for reward processing.

Musical Emotions Explained

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrik N. Juslin
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
Broad Variety ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Brain ◽  
As If ◽  
A Performance ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

The emotional power of music has been much examined and discussed. Based on new research, this book takes a close look at how music expresses and arouses emotions, and how it becomes an object of aesthetic judgments. It asks: can music really arouse emotions? If so, which emotions? How, exactly, does music arouse such emotions? Why do listeners often respond with different emotions to the same piece of music? Are emotions to music different from other emotions? Why do we respond to fictive events in art as if they were real, even though we know they are not? What is it that makes a performance of music emotionally expressive? Music is often regarded as consisting of abstract sequences of notes, which are devoid of meanings. This book argues that this is not true. Adopting an evolutionary perspective, the book shows how psychological mechanisms from our ancient past engage with meanings in music at multiple levels of the brain to evoke a broad variety of affective states — from startle responses to profound aesthetic emotions. Finally, it asks: but why do these mechanisms respond to music?

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-3
Author(s):  
Michael Numan
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Maternal Behavior ◽  
Parental Behavior ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Parental Cognitions ◽  
Caregiving System ◽  
Intergenerational Continuity ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Parental Brain

The introduction provides a brief overview of the book, describing its three major themes: (a) the mechanisms through which the brain regulates parental behavior in nonhuman mammals and parental cognitions, emotions, and behavior in humans; (b) the experiential and genetic factors that affect the development of the parental brain, with a focus on the intergenerational continuity of normal and abnormal parental behavior; and (c) an evolutionary perspective based on the fact that maternal behavior is the most basic mammalian caregiving system. It is proposed that the parental brain served as a foundation upon which natural selection acted to result in the evolution of other forms of strong prosocial behaviors in mammals, including humans.

The serotoninergic system of the brain of the lamprey, Lampetra fluviatilis: an evolutionary perspective

1992 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Pierre ◽  
J. Repérant ◽  
R. Ward ◽  
N.P. Vesselkin ◽  
J.-P. Rio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Serotoninergic System ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Lampetra Fluviatilis ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals Why the Quantum Brain?

2021 ◽  
Vol 05 (03) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Sergey B. Yurchenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Free Will ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Broad Perspective ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Brain

This article reviews the modern approaches to the quantum brain hypothesis. The aim is to consider the hypothesis and its classical brain-machine alternative from a broad perspective, including physics, biology, computer science, cosmology, and metaphysics. My starting point is that asking whether consciousness can or cannot have free will is fundamentally incorrect. This aspect is challenged by both physics and neuroscience. The paper argues that the search for conscious free will, as it is typically tested in Libet-type experiments, implies putting the cart before the horse. From the evolutionary perspective, a more correct question is this. Might primitive neural networks of simple organisms have possessed free volitional mechanisms (quantum in origin) as an extremely valuable acquisition for the flourishing of life? Might then the mechanisms have evolved from primary (rapid and random) reflexes in the oldest brain regions such as the brainstem to give rise to conscious cortex-centered properties in later stages of the brain evolution?

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