Tool and Symbol

This chapter examines the emergence of tool use and human language in human brain evolution. Increasing use and design of tools made possible by the bipedalism of our proto-human ancestors was a key step in the development of language. Indeed, communal tool use ‘helped to bring the members of society together by increasing the cases of mutual support and joint activity’. During this process, ‘the reaction of labour and speech on the development of the brain and its attendant senses, of the increasing clarity of consciousness, power of abstraction and of conclusion, gave both labour and speech an ever renewed impulse to further development’. The chapter then considers the studies which assess the fundamental differences in terms of language capacity between humans and apes. While the behaviourist view that human language acquisition is simply an accumulation of conditioned reflexes now looks incorrect, recent studies have also challenged the view of a biological basis for a ‘universal grammar’ shared by all humans. Instead, increasing evidence points to both human biology and the process of growing up in a specific human society as being factors of equal importance in the formation of language.

Introduction

This introductory chapter begins by providing an overview of the power of the human brain, which is displayed in the wonders of modern civilization. Despite the human brain’s capacity for such intellectual and technological feats, we still know astonishingly little about how it achieves them. This deficit in understanding is a problem not only because it means we lack basic knowledge of the biological factors that underlie our human uniqueness, but also because, for all its amazing capabilities, the human mind seems particularly prone to dysfunction. Still, some would argue there is good reason to be optimistic about the prospect of developing new and better treatments for mental disorders in the not-so-distant future. Such optimism is based on the increasing potential to study how the brain works in various important new ways thanks to recent technological innovations. The chapter then considers two overly polarised views of the human mind. Ultimately, this book argues that society radically restructures the human brain within an individual person’s lifetime, and that it has also played a central role in the past history of our species, by shaping brain evolution.

Mind and Matter

This chapter discusses different views on the basis of human consciousness. A major problem with much popular speculation about the biological roots of consciousness is that those who advocate a gene-based view of consciousness often appear to have little understanding of modern genetics, while speculation about how brain structures shape that consciousness often bear little resemblance to emerging knowledge about the complexity of an actual human brain. There is a common thread here, which is that idealised genes and brains have been substituted for real ones. Unfortunately, because of this tendency, it is not clear how much we have really advanced forwards from René Descartes and his belief that the human mind was an unknowable entity, or for that matter, the behaviourists with their view that the human mind could be treated as a black box. In contrast, to understand human consciousness, there is a need to understand real genes, real brains, and how these have evolved in humans compared to other species.

Normality and Diversity

This chapter begins by arguing that the different approaches to mental disorders are united in viewing such mental conditions as abnormal. Yet is it really the case that everything termed a mental ‘disorder’ is indeed so? Or could it be that in diagnosing conditions that affect the mind, we are ignoring the possibility that some ‘disorders’ may be part of the normal spectrum of human diversity? To take this argument further, could it even be the case that such diversity is an important component of human society and a source of some of its richness and achievements? The chapter looks at these possibilities, with particular reference to two quite different mental conditions—autism spectrum disorder and bipolar disorder. Autism spectrum disorders have been described as characterized by 'impairments in social interaction and both verbal and non-verbal communication, along with restricted, repetitive or stereotyped behaviour'. Meanwhile, the high and low phases of bipolar disorder are often so extreme that they interfere with everyday life; consequentially this can be a highly debilitating disorder. However, there is also an association of both types of mental disorder with great creativity, and high levels of intelligence.

Genome and Epigenome

This chapter focuses on the role that genes play in the formation of human consciousness. While the genome has generally been defined as the sum of the genes in an organism, the more we study real genomes, the more we realise that viewing them in this way is a major oversimplification of their true complexity. Perhaps the most surprising outcome of the Human Genome Project was the realization that genes only represent a small fraction of the total DNA sequence. More recently, evidence has been accumulating to show that a significant proportion of the ‘non-coding’ DNA plays key roles in gene regulation—that is, determining which genes get switched on or off and when. In addition, instead of DNA being seen as the sole controller of cellular function, there is now growing recognition that RNA also plays a key role. Meanwhile, the new science of ‘epigenetics’ is revealing that the DNA ‘recipe’ for each organism appears far more responsive to the environment than previously thought, both to changes in the cellular environment, and those outside the organism itself. These new ways of looking at the genome have important implications for the understanding of how the human brain works, and of some of the factors that might make it unique compared to those of other species.

Epilogue

This chapter returns to the various alternative views about human consciousness first mentioned at the start of this book, and assesses how this book’s account compares to, and hopefully builds on, these other viewpoints. The view of human consciousness developed in this book can explain the uniqueness of our species’ conscious awareness, but in an entirely materialistic fashion. This approach views language—the system of abstract symbols linked in a grammatical structure but also one that connects the individual to the world outside via word meaning—and other forms of human culture like music, art, and literature, as a material force that has reshaped human brain functions at every level. This has led to a qualitative shift in such functions, compared to that of every other species, including our closest animal cousins, the great apes. Unlike a purely ‘bottom up’ approach to human brain function, this view sees language, as well as other mediators of human culture, as imposing both structural and dynamic changes in our brains. Structurally, it sees the different brain regions, as well as their interconnections, as altered in humans. The chapter then reflects on what impact, if any, might this approach to understanding human consciousness have on diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.

Music and Rhythm

This chapter evaluates how music has been an important part of human culture for a very long time. One explanation for the centrality of music in human society is that it plays a key role in coordinating activity. Rhythmic sound ‘not only coordinates the behaviour of people in a group, it also coordinates their thinking—the mental processes of individuals in the group become synchronized’. This may explain how drums unite tribes in ceremony, why armies used to march into battle accompanied by bugle and drum, religious ceremonies are infused by song, and speech is punctuated by rhythmic emphasis on particular syllables and words. The chapter then assesses what modern neuroscience can reveal about how music affects the brain, and considers the role that music plays in the creation of meaning. It illustrates these general arguments with reference to music ranging from the classical music of Mozart and Beethoven, to mid-twentieth century jazz, through to modern pop music. The chapter also looks at how music can help us cope with some of the alienation that many people feel in modern society, and ways in which music has addressed the issue of mental illness.

Individual and Society

This chapter investigates the relationship between the individual and society, which has been hotly disputed among philosophers and politicians through the ages. Recent studies have questioned the idea that human beings are naturally solitary individuals. Instead, they suggest that socialising with others is so central to our species that rejection is registered in the same brain regions that respond to physical pain. Other studies have undermined the idea that human beings are inherently selfish, indicating instead that altruistic acts trigger activity in the ‘reward’ region of the brain that is stimulated when a person experiences pleasure. Studies like these raise the question of how the human brain became so attuned to social cues in this way. Here there are two issues to consider. One is evidence that primates in general have evolved to be highly sensitive to social interactions with other members of their species, and this has been accompanied by enhanced brain growth in order to handle these more sophisticated interactions. Yet while social interaction may be hardwired into our brains because of evolutionary changes in our primate ancestors, some features of our strong tendency towards social interaction may be specifically human. The chapter then looks at Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s novel ideas about human consciousness.

Fact and Fiction

This chapter assesses how much novels can reveal about the various mechanisms underlying human consciousness. Some might say, very little, and argue that only scientific study can uncover such mechanisms. However, because language plays such a key role in shaping human consciousness, the fictional explorations of the human condition that we find in novelistic literature can greatly add to our scientific understanding by concretizing that condition in its diverse forms. The chapter also explores a related question: how much do novels draw on new insights about the nature of consciousness, so increasing their ability to inform us about the human condition, and its relationship to changing forms of society? The best novels have a complexity and ambiguity of meaning that itself reflects the many contradictions in society and the individual psyche within that society. Importantly, this means there can be multiple readings of great novels, with different readers interpreting them in various ways. The chapter then examines several novels that have multiple interpretations and which also illuminate and enhance our understanding of different aspects of consciousness. These include Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847), Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw (1898), William Golding’s Pincher Martin (1956), and Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled (1995).

Learning and Memory

This chapter addresses the process of learning and memory in the animal and human brain. Learning is central to the development of a child into an adult, but also to the progression of human culture over time. But the ability to learn is also bound up with the capacity to remember. Speculation about the nature of human memory stretches back at least 2,400 years to Plato's attempts to understand this process. However, the eighteenth century English philosopher David Hartley was the first to link memories to the nervous system. While changes to the synaptic structure of a neuron clearly play an important role in the initial formation of memories, there is increasing evidence that altered expression of genes underpins long-term memory formation. The chapter then considers the role of the hippocampus in memory. The dynamic interaction of the hippocampus and the cortex may be key to the ability of the brain to form new associations between people, places, and objects.