A brain is only really required in moving organisms. To move safely and survive you need to plan your movement and be able to predict an advantageous outcome if the movement is to be of any benefit. Hence the organism needs an accurate sense of itself and the surrounding world. To do this successfully requires a tremendous amount of data processing in real time behind the scene. The brain has evolved to do this by chunking the movements into smaller pulsatile bursts of movements that are strung together like the still frames that makes up a movie. Various bursts of movements in unrelated muscle groups are timed to work together by being synchronized to a universal neurological background beat called the physiological tremor. Over time a combination of movements can be recorded into the nervous system as a movement pattern. These pre-learned movement patterns can be accessed for split second decisions to implement approach or withdrawal behaviors that can be tweaked in real time based on environmental sensory input. It seems like higher level thinking evolved from this kind of movement planning. Language, facial expressions, and emotions are organized the same way into pre-learned neurological patterns that are spaced apart within the brain but synchronized through a centralized phase-maker. These pre-programed patterns are being used for withdrawal or approach behavior based on an internal map of what is going on inside and around the person.
