Belief formation – A driving force for brain evolution

• Published in: Brain and cognition Vol. 140; pp. 105548 - 8
• Main Authors: Seitz, Rüdiger J., Angel, Hans-Ferdinand
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.04.2020; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Believing; Between-subjects design; Brain; Computational neuroscience; Cortex (frontal); Cortex (parietal); Decision making; Meaning; Nervous system; Neural processes; Phylogenesis; Phylogeny; Tool use; Brain; Phylogenesis; Neural processes; Believing; Meaning
• ISSN: 0278-2626; 1090-2147; 1090-2147
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105548

•Beliefs involve the integration of external and personal information for adequate behavior.•Based on the involved processes beliefs are categorized as empirical, relational and conceptual.•Empirical and relational beliefs develop instantaneously, conceptual beliefs rely on language.•The required neural rescources for beliefs are the driving force for phylogenetic brain evolution. The topic of belief has been neglected in the natural sciences for a long period of time. Recent neuroscience research in non-human primates and humans, however, has shown that beliefs are the neuropsychic product of fundamental brain processes that attribute affective meaning to concrete objects and events, enabling individual goal setting, decision making and maneuvering in the environment. With regard to the involved neural processes they can be categorized as empirical, relational, and conceptual beliefs. Empirical beliefs are about objects and relational beliefs are about events as in tool use and in interactions between subjects that develop below the level of awareness and are up-dated dynamically. Conceptual beliefs are more complex being based on narratives and participation in ritual acts. As neural processes are known to require computational space in the brain, the formation of inceasingly complex beliefs demands extra neural resources. Here, we argue that the evolution of human beliefs is related to the phylogenetic enlargement of the brain including the parietal and medial frontal cortex in humans.