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Updated: Jan 15, 2026

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A neuroecological perspective on the prefrontal cortex.

Rogier B Mars1, Richard E Passingham2

  • 1Oxford University Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, United Kingdom; Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, HD 6500, the Netherlands.

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
|October 6, 2025
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Human adaptability stems from prefrontal cortex evolution. Ancestral primates co-opted foraging abilities for complex reasoning and decision-making, highlighting shared neural foundations.

Keywords:
Behavioural NeuroscienceDecision-makingNeuroecologyforagingprefrontal cortexreasoning

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Anthropoids (monkeys, apes, humans) exhibit remarkable adaptability.
  • This adaptability is linked to the expansion of prefrontal cortex regions.
  • Understanding the evolutionary co-option of these regions is crucial for explaining human cognitive abilities.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how prefrontal cortex regions in ancestral primates were co-opted for enhanced cognitive functions.
  • To explore the neuroecological basis of anthropoid adaptability.
  • To elucidate the evolutionary trajectory from foraging behaviors to complex reasoning.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a neuroecological perspective integrating evolutionary biology, comparative neuroscience, and computational neuroscience.
  • Examined foraging niches of early anthropoid primates.
  • Compared human brain organization with that of other primates, specifically macaques.
  • Analyzed computational models of free-ranging behavior.

Main Results:

  • Demonstrated that anthropoid adaptability relies on the capacity to understand abstract concepts (number, order, identity).
  • Identified a selective advantage in rapid problem-solving during foraging based on abstract similarities to past experiences.
  • Confirmed homologous prefrontal areas in humans and monkeys, indicating shared fundamental organization despite human expansion.

Conclusions:

  • Human prefrontal cortex, though expanded, shares fundamental organization with macaques.
  • Humans have co-opted abilities originally used by macaques for foraging to support advanced reasoning and decision-making.
  • This co-option is rooted in our shared ancestry and the evolution of abstract concept understanding.