Evolutionary Neuropsychology

In Evolutionary Neuropsychology, Frederick L. Coolidge examines the evolutionary origins of the modern human brain. A new multidisciplinary science, evolutionary neuropsychology embraces and uses empirical findings from the fields of evolution, neuroscience, cognitive sciences, psychology, anthropology, and archaeology. Evolutionary neuropsychology assumes that the different functions of various brain regions developed in response to various environmental challenges over the course of billions of years. These adaptations and their brain regions and circuitry may now serve new functions, which are called exaptations, and they are particularly involved in higher cognitive functions, like thinking, imagining, recalling, and simulating different scenarios.