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Solving the "human problem": the frontal feedback model.

Raymond A Noack1

  • 1CMS Research, 1121 116th St. S, Tacoma, WA 98444, USA. cmsresearch2000@yahoo.com

Consciousness and Cognition
|February 15, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Unique human cognition arises from the brain's frontal feedback system. This system, emerging from prefrontal cortex expansion, reversed information flow, enabling complex thought and self-awareness.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Science
  • Evolutionary Psychology

Background:

  • Human cognition is characterized by unique abilities not observed in other species.
  • The evolutionary development of the human brain, particularly the prefrontal cortex, is a key area of study.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose and explain the functional frontal feedback system as the basis for unique human cognitive abilities.
  • To investigate the evolutionary origin and operational mechanisms of this system.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing dynamical-systems modeling of cortical interactions.
  • Integrating recent neuroimaging studies of resting-state brain activity.
  • Bridging microscopic and macroscopic levels of cortical behavior.

Main Results:

  • Identified a critical threshold in prefrontal cortex expansion during hominin evolution.
  • Demonstrated an information flow reversal from caudo-rostral to rostro-caudal bias in the neocortex.
  • Established the frontal feedback system's role in manipulating sensory memories and generating self-awareness.

Conclusions:

  • The frontal feedback system, resulting from an information flow reversal, is the neurobiological basis for uniquely human cognitive and experiential phenomena.
  • This system explains the emergence of self and agentic experience within cortical networks.
  • The study provides a synthesis of theoretical modeling and empirical data to support this evolutionary neurobiological hypothesis.