Assembly of the Human Mind: How Present Day Primates Reflect our Mind’s Anatomical and Physiological Evolution

Michael Hoffmann

doi:10.4172/2161-0940.1000e132

Abstract

Biological, gene based evolution is readily and often dramatically demonstrated in animals. In our instance, primate biology and anatomy is notable for the similarities to us including with the chimpanzee brain closely resembling our own. In addition, with over 98% commonality in genes, between humans and chimpanzees, the obvious question is how did our minds become so different? Evolution in humans has taken on a different dimension with cultural, meme (ideas, behaviors) based evolution, having taken over from biological evolution in the last 50 thousand years. This applies particularly to the mind, with a timescale dramatically different, measured in minutes to years rather than tens of thousands to millions of years. It might be presumed that anatomy and physiology have a lesser part to play with the development of the mind. How do we understand and regard the anatomy of the mind? A different perspective is required. Our bodies and brains reveal vestiges of the past but a major challenge has been the ephemeral mind, the development of which purportedly has no vestigial traces because it has no fossil correlate. Perhaps we have had blinkers on and not looked in the right places. Even casual scrutiny of our living primate relatives can be very illuminating of the hoops and loops our brain took to where it is today. We can see the different component intelligences such as visuomotor skills, language and executive function represented in different primates that still exemplify one or more of this attributes today. Some examples;

Highlights

Purgatorius, the ancestral monkey, was the first to become arboreal, in an environment that placed a premium on stereoscopic vision, accurate hand-eye coordination to catch that branch at dizzying heights
Lemurs are noteworthy, having never been exposed to venomous snakes, they remained with relatively low-level vision
Gibbons are monogamous and sing duets together to strengthen their pair-bond, are noted for their prolonged altriciality. They are considered to have split from our last common ancestor about 18 mya

Summary

Introduction

Purgatorius, the ancestral monkey, was the first to become arboreal, in an environment that placed a premium on stereoscopic vision, accurate hand-eye coordination to catch that branch at dizzying heights. Trichomatic (Good Color) Vision and the Snake Detection Theory Lemurs are noteworthy, having never been exposed to venomous snakes, they remained with relatively low-level vision. African primates and humans have much better trichomatic vision.

Results

Conclusion