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Reality and imagination intertwined: A sensorimotor paradox interpretation.
1Evolutionary Aesthetics, Paris 8 Saint-Denis University, France.
Bio Systems
|October 21, 2024
Summary
The evolutionary theory of the sensorimotor paradox proposes that a gap between mental imagery and sensory perception, driven by bipedalism and hand use, underpins abstract thought. This dissociation allows for emotional regulation and forms the basis of higher cognitive functions.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Sensory perception involves prediction and confirmation via feedforward and feedback neural networks.
- Mental imagery shares neural networks with perception but primarily uses internal feedback processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose an evolutionary theory for the origins of mind and language based on the sensorimotor paradox.
- To explain how capacities for imagination, self-representation, and abstraction emerge from neural dissociations.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical framework based on evolutionary principles and neuroscientific models of perception and imagery.
- Analysis of the functional and structural relationship between sensory feedback and internal predictive processes.
Main Results:
- A dissociation and parallelism between predictive (imagination) and feedback (perception) processes are hypothesized.
- This gap, influenced by bipedalism and hand use, is proposed as the foundation for abstract thought by inhibiting motor action.
Conclusions:
- Mental imagery is structurally dissociated from perception but interdependent, serving as an emotional regulator.
- The dissociation of imagination from perception is a proto-aesthetic function, with coordination representing expected feedback, crucial for cognitive evolution.
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