View source for Archive:Prefrontal analysis

{{Short description|Type of constructive imagination}}
<!-- Please do not remove or change this AfD message until the discussion has been closed. -->
{{Article for deletion/dated|page=Prefrontal analysis|action=deletion|timestamp=20261113123740|year=2026|month=November|day=13|help=off|demospace=n|substed=y|origtag=afd}}
<!-- Once discussion is closed, please place on talk page: {{Old AfD multi |date=13 November 2026 |result='''keep''' |page=Prefrontal analysis}} -->
<!-- End of AfD message, feel free to edit beyond this point -->
{{COI|date=March 2026}}
{{notability|date=March 2026}}
'''Prefrontal analysis (PFA)''' is a type of active [[Imagination#Constructive imagination|constructive imagination]] that allows humans to mentally reduce an object into parts.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vyshedsky |first1=Andrey |title=Neuroscience of Imagination and Implications for Human Evolution |journal=Curr Neurobiol |date=2019 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=89–109 |url=http://currentneurobiology.org/neurobiology/neuroscience-of-imagination-and-implications-for-humanevolution.pdf}}</ref> For example, humans can recall a kettle and then mentally break a handle. The imaginary kettle with the broken handle, a horse without the tail, or a cow without the ear are novel objects since they were never before observed physically. The process of generating these objects in the mind is the process of image decomposition or analysis, as opposed to [[Prefrontal Synthesis]] that involves combining two or more objects together.

On the neurological level, PFA is hypothesized to involve desynchronization of the part of an [[object-encoding neuronal ensemble]] (objectNE) from the rest of the ensemble.  For example, when one imagines a kettle with a broken handle, the [[lateral prefrontal cortex]] (LPFC) desynchronizes the handle from the rest of the objectNE of the kettle. LPFC-driven shift of a part of the objectNE out-of-phase with the rest of the ensemble, results in the perception of a new object encoded by those neurons that remain firing synchronously.

PFA was coined in to define the component of active imagination acquired by the first stone tools makers ''[[Homo habilis]]'' and ''[[Homo erectus]]''. Manufacturing a [[handaxe]] out of a cobble requires a mental template of the future handaxe. According to Ian Tattersall, “To make a carefully shaped handaxe from a lump of rock not only demanded a sophisticated appreciation of how stone can be fashioned by fracture, but a mental template in the mind of the toolmaker that determined the eventual form of the tool.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tattersall |first1=Ian |title=Becoming human : evolution and human uniqueness |date=1999 |publisher=Harcourt Brace |isbn=978-0156006538 |edition=1st}}</ref> In neurological terms, the “mental template” is an objectNE encoded in the [[neocortex]] of the toolmaker. Critically, the mental template could not have been recalled from memory. It must have been actively imagined by the toolmaker by analyzing the objectNE encoding the original cobblestone.

Since all attempts to teach stone tools manufacturing to apes have failed so far,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Toth |first1=Nicholas |last2=Schick |first2=Kathy D. |last3=Savage-Rumbaugh |first3=E.Sue |last4=Sevcik |first4=Rose A. |last5=Rumbaugh |first5=Duane M. |title=Pan the Tool-Maker: Investigations into the Stone Tool-Making and Tool-Using Capabilities of a Bonobo (Pan paniscus) |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |date=January 1993 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=81–91 |doi=10.1006/jasc.1993.1006|bibcode=1993JArSc..20...81T }}</ref> it is suggested that PFA was acquired after humans have split from chimpanzee line 6 million years ago. Improvement of stone tools from [[Stone Tools#Mode I: The Oldowan Industry|Mode One]] to [[Stone Tools#Mode II: The Acheulean Industry|Mode two]] and [[Stone Tools#Mode III: The Mousterian Industry|Mode Three]] have been hypothesized to reflect improvements in PFA ability.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vyshedsky |first1=Andrey |title=Neuroscience of Imagination and Implications for Human Evolution |journal=Curr Neurobiol |date=2019 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=89–109 |url=http://currentneurobiology.org/neurobiology/neuroscience-of-imagination-and-implications-for-humanevolution.pdf}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Imagination]]


{{Psychology-stub}}