Main description:

Evolutionary Neuropsychology: The Evolution of the Structures and Functions of the Human Brain presents the essential thinking behind neural reuse theories and how major exaptations have profoundly influenced modern brain structures and functions. In order to establish a baseline of knowledge, the book begins by presenting the specific features of the current human brain and its evolutionary background. It then overviews the evolutionary timeline of life-hence animals, primates and hominids, covering the more important exaptations that are thought to have occurred in the evolution of today's human brain.

With this background in place, the book then examines the theories of neural tissue reuse (exaptations) and the various hypotheses on how neural circuitry of the human brain has been recycled, repurposed and redeployed for new, higher cognitive purposes-often without losing original function.

Contents:

1. A Brief History of Life, the First Appearance of Brains, Dual Hemispheres, Adaptations versus Exaptations and Theories of Neuronal Recycling
2. A History of Animals, Mammals, Primates, Hominids, and the Earliest Roots of Homo Sapiens
3. Introduction to the Brain's Basic Features and Its Vocabulary
4. The Hippocampus, Navigation, and Memory Processing
5. Sleep and Dreams are Exapted for the Offline Processing of Memories
6. The Adaptation and Exaptations of the Frontal Lobes and the Prefrontal Cortex
7. The Temporal Lobes: A Series of Exaptations from Sound Instigation and Processing to Fully Symbolic and Syntactical Language
8. The Parietal Lobes: Somatosensory Integration to Sense of Self and Beyond
9. The Cerebellum: From Movement to Control to Thought Control
10. Embodied Cognition: How the Mind Leaks Beyond the Confines of the Brain