An Assessment of the Evolution of Executive Functions

Abstract

Cognitive evolution, as the core subject of fields like paleoanthropology, cognitive archeology, and neuropsychology, has begun to gain more interest in psychology in recent years. Executive functions are viewed from the perspective of cognitive evolution as basic advancements that are crucial to the evolution of language and contemporary cognition. As a metaphor, executive functions refer to advanced cognitive processes (working memory, inhibition, organization, cognitive flexibility, etc.) in the context of complex goal-directed behaviors. Sophisticated cognitive traits like executive functions emerged because of solutions to adaptive issues (survival, reproduction, and social group life) that human ancestors confronted over millions of years and passed them on to their offspring. Although it is accepted that Homo sapiens owes its evolutionary success to Paleolithic living conditions, explaining this process has not always been easy. In this review article, general information about executive functions is presented, followed by a review of scientific explanations about the evolution of executive functions. Evaluations have shown that these alternative scientific explanations based on archaeological, anthropological, and neuropsychological evidence for the evolutionary origins of executive functions do not fit all the pieces of the puzzle. It is believed that novel research models will clarify which of these alternative explanations are proximate causes and which are ultimate causes.