Beyond Evolutionary Psychology: How and Why Neuropsychological Modules Arise

216 Pages·2018·5.334 MB·English

by  George Ellis, Mark Solms

beyond evolutionary psychology
The nature/nurture question is an age-old problem. Beyond Evolutionary
Psychology deals with the relation between culture, evolution, psychology, and
emotion,basedbothintheunderlyingbiology,determinedbyourevolutionary
heritage, and in the interaction of our brain with the physical, ecological, and
socialenvironment,basedinthekeypropertyofbrainplasticity.EllisandSolms
show how the brain structures that underlie cognition and behaviour relate to
each otherthroughdevelopmentalprocessesguidedby primaryemotional sys-
tems.Thismakesveryclearwhichbrainmodulesareinnateor‘hard-wired’,and
which are ‘soft-wired’ or determined through environmental interactions. The
keyfindingisthattherecanbenoinnatecognitivemodulesintheneocortex,as
this is not possible on both developmental and genetic grounds; in particular,
therecanbenoinnatelanguageacquisitiondevice.Thisisessentialreadingfor
studentsandscholarsofevolutionarypsychologyandevolutionarybiology.
George Ellis is Emeritus Professor in the Mathematics Department at the
University of Cape Town, and visiting Professor in the Physics Department,
Oxford University. He co-authored The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time
withStephenHawking.HehasbeenawardedtheStarofSouthAfricaMedalby
President Nelson Mandela, the Order of Mapungubwe by President Thabo
Mbeki,andtheTempletonPrize.Hehasmanyawards,includingsixhonorary
doctorates,thelatestbeingawardedbytheUniversityofParis.Hislatestbook
is How Can Physics Underlie the Mind? Top-Down Causation in the Human
Context(2016).
Mark Solms is a psychoanalyst and a professor in neuropsychology. He
currently holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape
TownandGrooteSchuurHospitalandisthePresidentoftheSouthAfrican
Psychoanalytical Association. He is also currently Research Chair of the
International Psychoanalytical Association and Science Director of the
American Psychoanalytic Association. Solms founded the International
Neuropsychoanalysis Society (with the late Jaak Panksepp) in 2000 and was
aFoundingEditorofthejournalNeuropsychoanalysis.Hehaspublishedover
350articlesandchaptersandsevenbooks,thelatestbeingTheBrainandthe
InnerWorld(2002,translatedinto13languages)andTheFeelingBrain(2015,
hisselectedpapers).HeistheleadeducatorofthefreeonlinecourseWhatIsa
Mind?ontheplatformFutureLearn.
culture and psychology
SeriesEditor
DavidMatsumoto,SanFranciscoStateUniversity
Asanincreasingnumberofsocialscientistscometorecognizetheperva-
sive influence of culture on individual human behaviour, it has become
imperativeforculturetobeincludedasanimportantvariableinallaspects
of psychological research, theory, and practice. Culture and Psychology is
anevolvingseriesofworksthatbringsthestudyofcultureandpsychology
intoasingle,unifiedconcept.
UteSchönpflug,CulturalTransmission:Psychological,Developmental,
Social,andMethodologicalAspects
EvertVandeVliert,Climate,Affluence,andCulture
DavidMatsumotoandFonsJ.R.vandeVijver,Cross-CulturalResearch
MethodsinPsychology
AngelaK.-y.Leung,Chi-yueChiu,andYing-yiHong,CulturalProcesses:A
SocialPsychologicalPerspective
RominW.Tafarodi,SubjectivityintheTwenty-FirstCentury:
Psychological,Sociological,andPoliticalPerspectives
YairNeuman,IntroductiontoComputationalCulturalPsychology
JohnW.Berry,MutualInterculturalRelations
RonaldFischer,Personality,Values,Culture:AnEvolutionaryApproach
Beyond Evolutionary Psychology
How and Why Neuropsychological Modules Arise
George Ellis
UniversityofCapeTown
Mark Solms
UniversityofCapeTown
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107053687
doi:10.1017/9781107283954
©GeorgeEllisandMarkSolms2018
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Firstpublished2018
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contents
ListofFigures pagevi
ListofPlates viii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction 1
2 TheMindandtheBrain 16
3 Hierarchy,Modularity,andDevelopment 38
4 ClaimsofInnateModularity 59
5 TheMindandEmotions 83
6 ARealisticViewofEvolution,Development,andEmotions 104
7 Conclusion 136
Appendix:LanguageInfinities 174
References 178
Index 195
Thecolourplatesectionappearsbetweenpages116and117
v
figures
1.1 Thechainofcausation page6
2.1 Thetriunebrain 17
2.2 Thehypothalamus 20
2.3 Primaryandassociationcorticalareas 22
2.4 Thetectum 24
2.5 Thehippocampus 26
2.6 Thepowerofillusion 30
2.7 Thethalamus 31
2.8 Corticothalamiccircuitry 31
2.9 Broca’sareaandWernicke’sarea 33
3.1 Hierarchicalstructureofthecentralnervoussystem 39
3.2 Connectionsofneuronsviasynapses 41
3.3 Top-downeffectsoncellfunctionandgeneexpression 45
3.4 Neuralnetworkmodel 47
3.5 Thechainofdevelopmentalcausation 51
4.1 Mappingsfromobjectsormentalactivitytoconcepts
towords 64
4.2 Theshortroutefromthegenometocognition 73
4.3 Thelongerroutefromthegenometocognition 73
5.1 Periaqueductalgreymatter(PAG) 86
5.2 TheSEEKINGsystem 90
5.3 TheRAGEsystem 93
5.4 TheFEARsystem 94
5.5 ThePANIC/GRIEFsystem 97
5.6 Theeffectivenessofplacebos 102
6.1 Theinteractionsbetweenevolution,development,structure,
function,andenvironment(context) 107
vi
ListofFigures vii
7.1 Theancientenvironmentselectsdevelopmentalsystemsthat
provideddesirableoutcomesinthatcontext 140
7.2 Thewayconsciousproblem-solvingroutinesgetembodiedin
intuitiveproblem-solvingpatterns 149
7.3 Spokenandwrittenlanguagesaredifferentinstantiations
ofthesameexpressionsrepresentingabstractconcepts 158
plates
1 Thenervoussystem
2 (a)Cortexstructure(left),(b)ascendingsystems(right)
3 (a)Theoptictract,(b)theretinalsynapticconnections
4 SomemajornucleiofthereticularactivatingsystemandPAG
5 Associationareas
6 Thevisualwordformarea
7 Semanticmodels:Principalcomponentsofvoxel-wisesemantic
models,revealingfourimportantsemanticdimensionsinthebrain
8 Physicaldomainsinthecortex
9 Hierarchicalstructureofageneregulatorynetwork
10 (a)Sketchofcorticalcolumnsmadeupofinterconnectedneurons,
(b)Detailedmicrosketchofcorticalcolumns
11 Thenucleusaccumbens
viii
preface
A profound question regarding brain/behaviour relationships is this:
which aspects are innate, that is, are essentially genetically determined,
andwhich arenot?Thatis,whichaspectshaveaninitialstructurethatis
genetically determined but rather loosely prescribed at a detailed level,
their detailed nature then being precisely determined through develop-
mentalprocessesasaconsequenceoflearningexperiencesandinteraction
with the environment? Major disputes have raged around this question,
withmanylinguistssupportingChomsky’sproposalsconcerningtheexis-
tenceofinnatelanguagemodulesinthebrain,andwithsomeevolutionary
psychologists recently claiming existence of many other innate cognitive
modules,evenmodulesforfolkpsychology,folkbiology,andfolkphysics.
An opposing school, largely composed of ‘evo-devo’ theorists, have
stronglydeniedtheseclaims.
In our view, this dispute can only be resolved through a more detailed
consideration of the specific brain structures that are innate in the above
sense,thusavoidingsweepingstatementsaboutthebrainasawhole,asis
thecommonpractice.Suchdetailedconsiderationmusttakeseriouslyboth
neurophysiology and developmental neurobiology, based in epigenetic
processes, instead of simply relying on theoretical speculations about the
evolutionaryoriginsofbehaviour.
We argue that when this is done, a rather clear picture emerges as to
whichbrainstructuresareinnate,or‘hard-wired’,andwhicharenot.That
isthetopicofthisbook.
The conclusion is to recognize a number of brain modules that are
indeedhard-wired,butthesemodulesexcludethewholeoftheneocortex.
If correct, this book shows that the existence of innate language modules
andotherinnatecognitivemodulesisnotbiologicallyplausible.Rather,we
argue that any and all cognitive modules must have essentially
ix