Our Brains: Buffers to the Env
Our Brains: Buffers to the EnvironmentThe human brain with all its manifold capacities evolved from basic functions in simple organisms that lived nearly a billion years ago. Nowadays, anatomically modern humans possess cognitive abilities that are unprecedented in the evolutionary past of the species. Moreover, human intellectual capacities are unparalleled in the animal kingdom. For example, human beings differ dramatically in their capacity to sense, remember, and respond to the world around them. Ultimately, it is the evolution of the brain that has enabled human beings to think and feel the way we do. Our brains empower us to inquire into our biological past in search of information regarding just how such an inquiry is possible. This inquiry into the evolution of the human brain touches a diverse circle of scientific fields including geology, ecology, and genetics; understanding the evolution of different species of animals will also be of great assistance. From this inquiry the primary concept that will arise is that every evolutionary advance in the nervous system has a cost, and therefore, all evolutionary advances that are retained by a species confer benefits that exceed costs in a constantly changing world; hence,
Young apes lean about their environment by observing older animals and by testing the surrounding environment. The "expensive-tissue hypothesis" proposed by Aiello and Wheeler is conducive to understanding the relationship between nutritional variables and brain size. "Organization of the face representation in macaque motor cortex. These interrelated adaptations are vital evolutionary features in the history of mammals and birds. The ideal data to test the social-brain hypothesis would be the measure of the complexity of social interactions in different species; but because a direct measure does not exits it is difficult to draw a concrete relation between social interactions and the evolution of the brain. Mammals have responded to this requirement with the development of lactating females and muscular lips to enable babies to suckle their mother's milk. Two theories have been formed to illustrate the development of frontal vision and hand-eye coordination in primates: Matthew Cartmill's "visual predator" hypothesis and Robert Martin's "fine-branch niche" hypothesis. In particular, the neocortex probably evolved as part of adaptations related to temperature homeostasis. The improvements in cognitive and non-cognitive visual mechanisms in primates led to a greater reliance on facial expressions to communicate emotions.
Common topics in this essay:
Post Cambrian,
Robert Martin's,
TS Kemp,
George Sacher,
Buffers Environment,
Aiello Wheeler,
Peter Radetesky,
Nicolas Humphrey,
Dianna McMenamin,
Byrne Whiten,
temperature homeostasis,
body weight,
facial expressions,
brain size,
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aiello wheeler,
non-cognitive visual mechanisms,
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university press 1990,
animals cone pigments,
energy cost digesting,
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