Meditation and brain

H sapiens (humans) separated from H neanderthelensis (neanderthals)around 250,000 years ago. There was a significant expansion of the frontal lobes in humans in the millenia thereafter (a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms). The frontal lobes are the part of the brain that lies between the two eyes and just above those. It is responsible for processing all those features that make us quintessentially human - characteristics such as compassion, foresight, analysis, insight, self-control, planning, judgement, ethics and so on. One can safely say that the frontal lobe is the Chief Executive officer of the Human Company Ltd (or human mental organisation. The frontal lobes began to evolve and develop at a much faster rate around the time of separation and has continued to fascinate researchers. Humans and Neanderthals separated terminally around 35,000 years ago when neanderthals became extinct. However, this conincided with an explosion of human art starting with rock art in caves of Lascaux in southern France and in South Africa to name just two. It is suggested that this explosion essentially separated humans from all other animal forms as it allowed them to 'project' internal imaginations and impulses into the external world in a symbolic form. Symbolism depends on one's capacity to hold something in mind and transform it into something totally different at first sight but representative of the original. Symbolism is an integral part of ancient communal rituals, most notably sitting around fires, shamanistic rituals and communicating with the spirit-world. These required the capacity to suspend one's existence on the earthly plane and travel through symbolic use of rituals and imnagination into another world. Meditative practices have been proposed as one mechanism that facilitates the development of frontal lobes by enhancing the functions that is subserves, such as working memory (the capacity to hold information 'online', long enough for us to work out solutions to problems), and attention and concentration. It is known that using certain mental processes leads to anatomical expansion of the relevant parts of the brain (e.g. London taxicab drivers). It is therefore likely that participation in shamanistic rituals and engaging with the sprits through meditative practices were the triggers for further frontal lobe development.