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On The Origin of the Human Mind. Three Theories: Uniqueness of the Human Mind, Evolution of the Human Mind, and The Neurological Basis of Conscious Experience ReviewDespite the title of the book "On the Origin of the Human Mind" is not a complete presentation of evolutionary origin of the human brain and cognitive capacity. If it is what you are looking for, you better read David Bjorklund's book "The Origin of Mind" that is the best introduction to the subject to my knowledge. Dr. Vyshedskiy's book is subtitled " Three theories: Uniqueness of the Human Mind, Evolution of the Human Mind, and The Neurological Basis of Conscious Experience". For a book of 168 pages it is a very ambitious program. In fact the book should be better seen as a collection of three essays loosely linked by a common theme: "mental synthesis".Dr. Vyshedskiy starts from the question "What makes us human?" If we look at apes we find that they share with us many characteristics that many people think specifically human such as self awareness, displaying emotion, smiling, reading other apes' minds, using complex social codified behaviours, using tools and transmitting a limited acquired culture to their offspring. He also credits apes, and also bees, birds, whales, and dolphins, with a limited language, something very questionable (it depends on the definition of language that one uses). He also think that abstract thinking, defined as "the process of generalization by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon" is not specific to the human mind because "Vervet monkeys of East Africa have concept of leopard, snakes eagle and baboon"(pp. 16-7) (Here we might have a confusion between concept and representation). If language and abstract thinking do not make the difference, what will do it? Dr. Vyshedshiy's answer is "mental synthesis", something that Dr. Vyshedskiy thinks is a new theory but which has a number of things in common with other theories on the origin of language and rationality. Dr. Vyshedskiy defines mental synthesis as "the process of synthesizing a new, never-before-seen image from two or more mental images" (p. 22). Although animals are able to communicate, a chimp, for example, "cannot describe to another chimp a never-before-seen object because chimps cannot synthesize a new, never-before-seen image in their mind" (p.27). Without mental synthesis human language could never have arisen, and for that reason Dr. Vyshedskiy call human language "synthesizing language" (p. 28). The difference between non synthesizing languages and synthesizing language is that the former cannot create a new image in the listener's mind (p. 31). Animal can only learn to manipulate symbols or learn a limited number of word but they cannot use that capacity to solve problem or to plan actions. It is mental synthesis that allows us to analyse problems and to visually plan the action to be taken in our mind (p. 20). Here comes a very interesting development. Chimps can create and use tools, but the way they do it is fundamentally different from humans. For example a chimp can use a stick to fish termite. He needs to break a twig from a tree, remove the leaves and sharpen it with is teeth to shape it as a spear. The way he learns the process is by observing other apes doing it and learning the process by trial and error. It might take a chimp several months or even several years to master the whole process. The reason is that the chimp does not have a mental template of the tool. The way he learns is by remembering the actions that bring the reward through automated movements. "This long time frame of technique acquisition is similar to that is needed by humans to learn to play tennis, ski, ice-skate, play a musical instrument..." (p. 36). But when the chimps look at the stick they see only the stick. They do not see a tool and they do not have a concept of tool or even a concept of a stick for fishing termites. Here comes Dr. Vyshedskiy's theory of language: language is based on "mental synthesis" which must have evolved a long time before language appeared. Language allows human to plan their actions and to share the plan with other humans. In order to do that humans use "mental frames" which are "synthesized in the minds of the listeners" as "identical copies of the frames in the mind of the speaker. Thus the complex human language evolved to serve the purposes of synthesizing new images in the mind of the listeners" (p. 40). However pure mental synthesis is the absence of language remain possible (p. 42) and occur in different part of the brain.
In the second part of the book, Dr. Vyshedskiy tries to define when and how mental synthesis has appeared during human evolution. The origin of mental synthesis must be found in the development of the hominid's visual system. Because hominids could not compete in terms of strength and speed, when they started walking in the African savannah they had to develop a system of early recognition of predators. That new system was not based on recognition of the whole image like other animals, but on visual analysis consisting in decomposing a template of the predators in different components such as tail, ears, body, paws, etc., (pp. 75-6). Human became capable of assembling and dissembling mental image and that capacity is became the basis of mental analysis by generalizing of the mental process to other cognitive areas (p. 92). It also provides an interesting explanation of dreams and hallucinations (p. 153). In modern human, "visual analysis is primary a function of the left hemisphere and recognition of a whole object via amodal completion is primary a function of the right hemisphere" (pp. 76-7). "Improvement of the visual system in general and visual analysis in particular enable Homo habilis to manufacture the first stone choppers" because homo habilis had acquired " a mental template of a chopper"(p. 79-80). Homo habilis did not improve Oldowan tools for nearly a million year; Homo erectus erectus did not improve Acheulean tools for nearly two million years. The stasis in tool manufacturing can only be explained "by the limitation of the brain structure" (p. 80) (In my view it can also be explained by the absence of mirror neurons not yet developed). It is the refinement of the visual system that "drove the evolution of hominids" (p. 81). "Around 2.4 million years ago, the visual analysis system acquired elements of voluntary analysis" (p. 92) and 2 million years ago "the visual and prefrontal cortices developed significantly in Homo ergaster and Homo erectus" allowing "voluntarily dissecting the visual percept into fine details" (p.132). Development of the speech apparatus came later and was a consequence of a better visual system. "As hominids were able to separate more and more elements from the visual image, they needed more and more words to describe these elements" (p. 82). However it is only Homo sapiens that became fully able to synthesize mental image and to develop synthesizing language.
Part three of the book is more technical and tries to identify how mental image are formed at the neuronal level. It implies the solving by evolution of many technical problems such as neuronal synchronization (pp. 115-21) and the specialization of different areas in the prefrontal cortex (pp. 121-30). As those problems are covered by standard neuroscience literature I will not go into the details. Suffice is to say that the different part of a mental image are stored in different part of the brain and must be reassembled when the brain want to recall a memory (p. 107). This fact allows the synthezation of "never-before-seen image" by combining different components of different images. "The final step of the evolution of Homo was the acquisition of mental synthesis. About 100,000 years ago, the prefrontal cortex of Homo sapiens developed the capacity to synchronize several neuronal ensembles in one frame of consciousness" (p. 133).
I gave only three stars to the book for several reasons. (a) Mental synthesis is not a fully developed theory and more "work in process". The theory appears to be more an intuition that something solidly demonstrated. The author often gives the impression to be in hurry with no time for details. Facts that presented as "new" are sometimes known for decades. Scientific methodology is often weak. (b) The three part of the book are not integrated leading to overlap and repetition. (c) Dr. Vyshedskiy is obviously well versed in biology and neurosciences but does not seem to have any knowledge of development psychology, cognitive psychology and more important theories of the origin of language and rationality (evolutionary linguistic and psycholinguistic). (d) The book often lack in precise references for the facts and research quoted and therefore is difficult to use and to quote in an academic context. Despite all these flaws, in only 168 pages Dr. Vyshedskiy has achieved a very illuminating synthesis of a large array of scientific facts and produced a coherent theory of great interest. The theory might not be as new or as original as the author thinks, but there is an interesting convergence with other researches showing that the author might be close to truth. Whereas most theories in evolutionary linguistic put the emphasis on neuronal requirements for language, Dr. Vyshedskiy shows that the evolution of pre-linguistic cognitive capacity are as much vital as the evolution of linguistic capacity for understanding how modern human intellectual capability evolved. A more detailed and focussed book would be welcomed. I can only wish that Dr. Vyshedskiy, who apparently has accepted a management position in a R&R company, will return soon to academic life.
On The Origin of the Human Mind. Three Theories: Uniqueness of the Human Mind, Evolution of the Human Mind, and The Neurological Basis of Conscious Experience Overview
Some of the most time-honored questions in philosophy, psychology, and neurosciencecenter on the uniqueness of the human mind. How do we think? What makes us sodifferent from all the other animals on planet Earth? What was the process thatcreated the human mind? Is this process unique or can it be repeated on otherplanets? The book "On the Origin of the Human Mind" attemptsto provide an answer to these questions. It is organized into three chapters:
Chapter I "Uniqueness of the Human Mind" introducesthe reader to recent research into animal behavior, communication, culture andlearning, as well as controlled animal intelligence experiments and offers anew hypothesis of what makes the human mind unique.
Chapter II "Evolution of the Human Mind" combines latestgenetics research and archeological discoveries to help readers understand hominidevolution. The author discusses the forces that influenced the development ofthe hominid intelligence and offers a step-by-step theory that links improvementin visual information processing to speech development and to the types of stonetools manufactured by the hominids.
Chapter III "The Neurological Basis of Conscious Experience"takes the reader on an exciting journey into the neurobiology of the human mind.The author introduces the reader to the structure and function of the brainand then presents recent insights into brain organization derived from cognitivepsychology, brain imaging, animal experiments, and the studies of patients withdiseases of the brain. The book concludes with a unifying theory of the mindand a discussion of the evolution of the human brain and the uniqueness of thehuman mind from the neurological perspective.
Audience The book speaks best to readers who want to approach the mind from a scientificperspective. The book is written in easy-to-read engaging style. No previousknowledge in psychology, paleoanthropology, or neuroscience is necessary.
Hardcover edition The book is illustrated and printed in full-color.
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