Not just a virtue: the evolution of self-control

Title
Not just a virtue: the evolution of self-control
Докладчик
Prof. Ramesh Kumar Mishra
Должность

University of Hyderabad, Center for Neural and Cognitive Sciences Hyderabad, India

Associate professor

Дата
India Standard Time

Cognitive Archeology is developing as an important discipline that has serious contributions to Cognitive Science. The question of how the human brain and mind evolved is very significant. Unfortunately, since the cognitive revolution, the question of evolution has not been taken up by many interdisciplinary scholars. Thomas Wynn's work has been very significant in illuminating many aspects of not just brain's evolution but the evolution of cognition and its components. This particular paper emphasizes the evolution of working memory it is well known that working memory and attention are critical for most cognitive functions. However, how they have evolved in our species, remains contested. Contemporary experimental approaches in using Cognitive Neuroscience techniques have revealed that not just the growth of the prefrontal cortex but also selective networking has taken place in our species, in the last 40,000 to 50,000 years that has given us the precision in cognition that we enjoy today. I will emphasize on Wynn's work and also will bring in other ideas that connect to this important topic.