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For Your Learning Friday: Why is Your Brain so Big?

  • 1.  For Your Learning Friday: Why is Your Brain so Big?

    Posted 07-19-2022 11:03:00 AM

    The human brain is 7 times larger than it should be, relative to the size of our body. (Cue Samuel L. Jackson voice: “Check out the big brain on Brad”).

    From an evolutionary perspective, the human brain became very big, very fast. But there’s nothing special about our evolutionary skills. So how do we explain this?

    Neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel explains that we have more neurons in the cerebral cortex than any other animal, thanks to our ancestors' invention, some 1.5 million years ago, of a more efficient way to obtain calories: cooking. Cooked food—as opposed to eating raw like other primates—allows us to take in more calories in less time. So we as a species quickly acquired more neurons in the cerebral cortex.

     

    Speaking of food, how did Herculano-Houzel determine exactly how many neurons are in the brain? She made “brain soup” and, no, you don’t want to eat it.

    Interested? Check out The Human Advantage: How Our Brains Became Remarkable or her TEDTalk.

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    Penny Schnarrs
    Virtual Communities Program Manager
    Association of American Medical Colleges
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