Cognition in motion: Functional internal models as an evolutionary scaffold in cognitive control

We argue that cognitive evolution is rooted in the development of distributed functional internal models within hierarchical, decentralized, and multimodal sensorimotor loops. Based on an embodied cognition perspective, we emphasize how these models initially evolved to support adaptive behavior and can be flexibly recruited for higher cognitive functions. This perspective complements the proposed sensory-driven and vision-centric account.