Early roots of adult Mind

Abstract

We are generally inclined to separate the various aspects of mental functions from each other as they were modules with their own autonomy. However, the mind, be it language as well as other cognitive and perceptive functions, has its own unity and is affected by a component, the motor one, which is the oldest from an evolutionary point of view and which depends on nervous structures – cortex, basal ganglia and cerebellum – that add in their motor, motivational and cognitive components. Motor and cognitive processes are functionally related and share a similar evolutionary history. This is supported by clinical and neurophysiological data showing that some brain regions integrate both motor and cognitive functions. A large body of data supports the notion that motor processes can contribute to cognitive functions, as found by many rehabilitation and aerobic training programs. From early childhood, muscular movements, the basis of complex procedural memories and automatisms, represent the building blocks on which a set of vast mental abilities are built. The infant gradually learns from the internal logic of movements and actions the principles of sequentiality and causality, essential to structure the language, to produce congruous phonatory movements, to sort words according to a logical progression. During infancy, motor skills and activities typical of free play are closely associated with a series of cognitive consequences that are part of a remarkable brain plasticity. This plasticity continues to manifest itself in the life span and benefits from a cognitive reserve whose foundations were laid in the years of childhood and adolescence. Physical exercise, aerobic activity as well as intellectual stimulation continue to have a positive effect on brain plasticity even during old age.