ABSTRACT
Human cognition emerges from complex patterns of neural activity that, in fundamentally important ways, depend on an individual’s developmental and experiential history. Understanding the development of human cognition requires an understanding of how brain networks together with dynamically interwoven processes that extend from the brain through the body into the world shape developmental pathways. This chapter fleshes out the contemporary understanding of the “origins” of human cognition and shows that the traditional notions of “concepts” and “innateness” have no role to play in the study of the mind. The dynamic properties of brain networks also clarify conceptual issues relevant to the “origins” of human cognition. First, the role of connectivity goes beyond channeling specific information between functionally specialized brain regions. Second, the role of external inputs goes beyond the triggering or activating of specific subroutines of neural processing that are encapsulated in local regions.
