Keep the conversation going to improve entrainment and executive functions

Yesterday I had a meeting with my mentor. He often disapproves when I call him that, but he was the one who recruited me to Finland and the university of Helsingfors as a research leader to, as he often says, 'accomplish something'. Since our first meeting, we have spent countless meetings together in hours-long conversations. Yesterday was one such occasion. Why do humans have the ability to converse, and what's the point of having that ability? Language emerged as a function of an expanding prefrontal cortex. Humans have an impulse for argumentation, but in order to deal with heterodoxy we can tame the devil within us and reach entrainment. That's the key to accomplishing something. 2 pages.

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Yesterday I had a meeting with my mentor. He often disapproves when I call him that, but he was the one who recruited me to Finland and the university of Helsingfors as a research leader to, as he often says, 'accomplish something'. For a couple of years, I've been part of a network of advisors for his doctoral thesis. Mainly on methods.

We met for the first in 2014. He had signed up for the course I had been teaching for several years at the University of Helsingfors on leadership, decision-making, organizational learning and social creativity for problem solving and innovation.

And when he told me that he was a former business director who had decided to do a doctorate, the sun went down a little; I imagined a person who would constantly correct everything I said. But instead, the opposite happened – he supplemented the theories I presented with anecdotes from the business world. It turned out to be a really good course.

Since our first meeting, we have spent countless meetings together in hours-long conversations. Yesterday was one such occasion.

Why do humans have the ability to converse, and what's the point of having that ability?

Humans are a species – Homo Sapiens Sapiens – and we have been around for ~320 000 years (Hublin et al. 2017). Homo indicate that we belong to a specific genus – Homo. Findings show that our genus have existed at least 2.8 million years (Kimbel och Villmoare, 2016; Villmoare, 2018; Villmoare et al. 2015). 'Our' predecessor was Australopithecus afarensis, or Lucy, who lived 3.9 – 2.9 million years before the present. Here's the catch. Lucy didn't have a verbal language. That implies that they used body and facial expressions to communicate, for example intentions.

Lucy's brain volume was ~430 cubic centimeters (CC). When our genus came about, their brain volume was >600 (CC), that is, almost 50% larger. That means that something was expanded, and that was the prefrontal cortex. And over many generations, the prefrontal cortex kept expanding. Our specific species brain volume is ~1300 cc, that is approximately three (3) times the size of Lucy's. 2 pages.

With a larger prefrontal cortex, there was room for new mental faculties – the executive functions, social cognition, and a verbal language (Ardila, 2008; Ardila et al. 2018; Adornetti, 2016; Barkley, 2001; Coolidge and Wynn, 2018; Elliott, 2003; Diamond, 2013; Diamond et al. 2011; Jurado och Rosselli, 2007; Tomasello, 2014).

Everett (2017) suggests that a protolanguage existed ~2 million years before the present, based on the assumption that syntax is symbols organized in a linear way. This does not mean that they used the same complex language that we use today, but that they had the ability to express certain things, such as intentions, verbally.

Mercier and Sperber (2011) suggested that humans have impulse for argumentation – speak to win, but in order to deal with heterodoxy – viewpoint diversity, we need to tame the devil within us to speak without winning (Karadzhov et al. 2024; Pinker, 2011; Strudwicke et al. 2023). By reasoning, we can reach entrainment – the rhythmic synchronization of behavior, or the dance of conversation (Borrie, 2017; Wynn and Borrie, 2022), which means we can get the best out of our executive functions, including elaborating intentions forward in time. That's the key to accomplishing something.

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