Donald M
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Neuropsychologia. 1995 Sep;33(9):1087-102. doi: 10.1016/0028-3932(95)00050-d.
Human brains are basically primate in design, but in addition have representational mechanisms that give human consciousness a special character. The evolution in hominids of new kinds of representational skill--both nonverbal and verbal--produced our capacity for skilled rehearsal and explicit memory retrieval, and allowed the invention of conventional, or public representations, including languages and external symbols. The latter have created demands at the cultural level that greatly influence the deployment of cerebral resources. The spiralling interaction of brain and culture in evolution has resulted in a unique quasi-modular architecture at the highest levels of human cerebral integration.
人类大脑在结构上基本属于灵长类，但此外还具有一些表征机制，这些机制赋予了人类意识一种特殊的性质。在原始人类中，新型表征技能（包括非语言和语言技能）的进化产生了我们进行熟练复述和明确记忆检索的能力，并使得传统的或公共表征得以发明，包括语言和外部符号。后者在文化层面上产生了各种需求，极大地影响了大脑资源的配置。在进化过程中，大脑与文化的螺旋式相互作用在人类大脑整合的最高层次上形成了一种独特的准模块化结构。
