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Kerstin Hoge probes a view of the mind that takes aim at Chomsky and evolutionary psychology.
The Unpredictable Species: What Makes Humans Unique
By Philip Lieberman
Princeton University Press
272pp, Pounds 19.95
ISBN 9780691148588 and 9781400846702 (e-book)
Published 21 April 2013
The term "unpredictable" carries conflicting connotations. On the one hand, an unpredictable person or object can be understood to fall short of the expected standard; on the other, unpredictability is linked to originality, a prerequisite for creativity and human advancement. It is this latter sense of "unpredictable" to which Philip Lieberman refers here. Modern humans, he believes, evolved to be the "unpredictable species" owing to the enhanced creative capacities of their brains, which the author locates in the computational efficiency of brain circuits "involving cortex, basal ganglia, hippocampus, and other neural structures". Crucially, he seeks to establish that the circuitry responsible for our cognitive flexibility is neither domain-specific nor uniquely human. For example, cortico-basal ganglionic circuits, whose impairment leads to language loss, are also involved in regulating motor control, associative learning and even emotion; the circuits "do not materially differ in monkeys and humans".
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