Embodied cognition meets epigenetics: At the intersection of brain development and learning

Discoveries in epigenetics are leading to conceptual re-discussion in cognitive science. The presence of epigenetic memories that regulate adaptive changes in very simple organisms blurs the distinction between a cognitive and a physiological system. Moreover, the discovery of epigenetic marks that regulate memory is challenging the classical model of memory based on in synaptic changes. Another set of epigenetic findings concerns the similarities and continuity of learning and development and has two main implications: firstly, the continuity between physiology and cognition observed at the evolutionary level applies at the ontogenetic level as well; secondly, the continuity between learning and development supports the view of situated and embodied cognition, according to which environmental and bodily factors participate in the constitution of cognitive functions. An epigenetic approach to cognition is proposed to establish the mode and degree of environmental and bodily influences in the development and evolution of cognitive functions.