ABSTRACT
Areas of the brain associated with higher order cognitive functions have reached their highest level of evolutionary advancement in humans. This has enabled complex problem solving and foresight, processes which have ultimately led to the development of the complexities of human society. Participation in such a complex environment requires continual cognitive analysis and ability to learn from experience, processes which at the neuronal level involve synaptoplasticity. It would not be surprising if such synatoplasticity has advanced in the human brain and that maladaption or dysfunction could lead to mental disorders which could be human specific. This chapter proposes etiological models for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and schizophrenia which are related to this hypothesized evolutionary advanced synaptoplastic potential of the mature human brain. Relative background information regarding evolution, ontogeny, higher order cognitive functions, and brain involution will be described initially, prior to elucidation of these theories.
