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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.
List of contents
- Chapter 1: A Brief History of Life and Brain Evolution
- Chapter 2: The Evolution of Learning and Memory Systems
- Chapter 3: An Introduction to the Brain
- Chapter 4: The Frontal Lobes
- Chapter 5: The Parietal Lobes
- Chapter 6: The Temporal Lobes
- Chapter 7: The Cerebellum
- Chapter 8: The Hippocampus
- Chapter 9: The Evolution of Sleep and Dreams
- Chapter 10: Paleopsychopathology
About the author
Frederick L. Coolidge received his PhD in Psychology and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Florida. He is currently a professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (UCCS). He has received three Fulbright Fellowships, three teaching awards, and two outstanding research awards. In 2015, he was a Senior Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, and he is an annual Scholar-in-Residence at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar.
Summary
In Evolutionary Neuropsychology, Frederick L. Coolidge examines the evolutionary origins of the human brain's present structures and functions, and traces these origins from the first life forms, through the development of consciousness, to modern human thinking. A new multidisciplinary science, evolutionary neuropsychology embraces and uses empirical findings from the fields of evolution, neuroscience, cognitive sciences, psychology, anthropology, and archaeology. The bedrock foundation of evolutionary neuropsychology is the assumption that functionally-specialized brain regions are adaptations naturally selected in response to various environmental challenges over the course of billions of years of evolution. 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.
Additional text
Written with impressive erudition, clarity of thought and fluency of language, Fred Coolidge's Evolutionary Neuropsychology offers an authoritative account of the evolutionary origins of the brain's structures and their specialized functions. Packed with pertinent information, yet highly readable, this book is bound to become a classic introduction to a field that appears bewilderingly complex to the newcomer."
