Neural Darwinism

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Neural Darwinism is a biological, and more specifically Darwinian and selectionist, approach to understanding global brain function, originally proposed by American biologist, researcher and Nobel-Prize recipient^[1] Gerald Maurice Edelman (July 1, 1929 – May 17, 2014). Edelman's 1987 book Neural Darwinism^[2] introduced the public to the theory of neuronal group selection (TNGS) – which is the core theory underlying Edelman's explanation of global brain function.

Owing to the book title, TNGS is most commonly referred to as the theory of neural Darwinism, although TNGS has roots going back to Edelman and Mountcastle's 1978 book, The Mindful Brain – Cortical Organization and the Group-selective Theory of Higher Brain Function – where Edelman's colleague, the American neurophysiologist and anatomist Vernon B. Mountcastle (July 15, 1918 – January 11, 2015), describes the columnar structure of the cortical groups within the neocortex,^[3] while Edelman develops his argument for selective processes operating among degenerate primary repertoires of neuronal groups.^[4] The development of neural Darwinism was deeply influenced by Edelman's work in the fields of immunology, embryology, and neuroscience, as well as his methodological commitment to the idea of selection as the unifying foundation of the biological sciences.