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Mental time travel, language evolution, and human self-domestication
1Department of Spanish, Linguistics, and Theory of Literature (Linguistics), Faculty of Philology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain. abenitez8@us.es.
Cognitive Processing
|January 6, 2021
Summary
Human self-domestication may explain evolutionary changes in the brain's hippocampus. This could be linked to enhanced mental time travel and the development of complex human language.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive science
Background:
- The human brain exhibits unique cognitive abilities, including advanced mental time travel and complex language.
- Evolutionary pressures have shaped human neuroanatomy, but specific drivers remain debated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the potential role of human self-domestication in shaping the hippocampus.
- To investigate the link between hippocampal evolution, mental time travel, and language development.
Main Methods:
- Comparative neuroanatomy analysis
- Evolutionary psychology frameworks
- Linguistic and cognitive modeling
Main Results:
- Self-domestication may have selected for specific hippocampal structures.
- These changes correlate with enhanced episodic future thinking and past event recall.
- Hippocampal modifications provide a potential neural basis for complex linguistic structures.
Conclusions:
- Human self-domestication is a plausible factor in the evolution of the human hippocampus.
- This evolutionary process may underpin key human cognitive capacities like mental time travel and language.
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