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The data showed the genes in the human brain evolved much faster than those of the other species. Once this genomic evidence was acquired, Lahn and his team decided to find the specific gene or genes that allowed for or even controlled this rapid evolution. Two genes were found to control the size of the human brain as it develops.
The human brain has evolved around the metabolic, environmental, and social needs that the species has dealt with throughout its existence. As hominid species evolved with increased brain size and processing power, the overall metabolic need increased. Compared to chimpanzees, humans consume more calories from animals than from plants.
Paleoneurobiology is the study of brain evolution by analysis of brain endocasts to determine endocranial traits and volumes. Considered a subdivision of neuroscience, paleoneurobiology combines techniques from other fields of study including paleontology and archaeology. It reveals specific insight concerning human evolution.
Although the evolution and function of the human cerebral cortex is still shrouded in mystery, we know that it is the most dramatically changed part of the brain during recent evolution. The reptilian brain, 300 million years ago, was made for all our basic urges and instincts like fighting, reproducing, and mating.
MacLean was an American physician and neuroscientist who formulated his model in the 1960s, which was published in his own 1990 book The Triune Brain in Evolution. [1] MacLean's three-part theory explores how the human brain has evolved from ancestors over millions of years, consisting of the reptilian, paleomammalian and neomammalian complexes.
The expensive tissue hypothesis (ETH) relates brain and gut size in evolution (specifically in human evolution).It suggests that in order for an organism to evolve a large brain without a significant increase in basal metabolic rate (as seen in humans), the organism must use less energy on other expensive tissues; the paper introducing the ETH suggests that in humans, this was achieved by ...
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Subsequent findings according to human brain evolution expert Terrence Deacon, have refined the traditional neuroanatomical ideas upon which MacLean based his hypothesis. Deacon mentioned that 'the evolutionary addition of different parts of the brain is simply not realistic.