Mental organs and the origins of mind
pp. 301-326
in: Liz Swan (ed), Origins of mind, Berlin, Springer, 2013Abstract
I introduce a new hypothesis of the origin of complex mind through the emergence of "mental organs," populations of neurons that bear a specific G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) on their surface. Mental organs provide a direct connection between mental properties (compassion, comfort, awe, joy, reason, consciousness), and the genes and regulatory elements associated with GPCR. Mental properties associated with mental organs have heritable genetic variation and are thus evolvable. Mental organs evolve by duplication and divergence. Over three hundred different GPCR are expressed in the human brain, providing a genetic and regulatory system that allows evolution to richly sculpt the mind.