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Raw veganism
Published in Carlo Alvaro, Raw Veganism, 2020
Some suggest that cooking food contributed significantly to human’s higher cognitive capacities. In an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers Suzana Herculano-Houzel and Karina Fonseca-Azevedo argue that cooking food was the key factor to human increased encephalization: Absent the requirement to spend most available hours of the day feeding, the combination of newly freed time and a large number of brain neurons affordable on a cooked diet may thus have been a major positive driving force to the rapid increased in brain size in human evolution.6Another key sources in the debate over the role of diet in human brain development is the expensive-tissue hypothesis proposed by Aiello and Wheeler. They explain that Homo sapiens developed a larger brain compared to other mammals has to be viewed as a concomitant event to the reduction in size of the gastro intestinal tract. According to the authors, this change was favored by “the incorporation of increasingly greater amounts of animal products into the diet [of Homo sapiens].”7
Preterm labour
Published in Louise C Kenny, Jenny E Myers, Obstetrics, 2017
Compared to other species, human pregnancy is complicated by PTL more frequently. A possible explanation lies in human evolution, specifically involving bipedalism and encephalization. Bipedalism, where humans assumed an upright posture, is associated with a narrower pelvis. Encephalization, where the human brain increased in volume, is associated with a larger head circumference (Figure 8.1). Each has the potential to increase the chance of obstructed labour and the death of both mother and baby. Consequently, evolution would favour the emergence of earlier delivery and the ability to survive an earlier delivery, potentially explaining why PTL is more common in humans.
ENTRIES A–Z
Published in Philip Winn, Dictionary of Biological Psychology, 2003
The superficial part of cerebral hemispheres is the CEREBRAL CORTEX, critically important for higher functions including LEARNING and MEMORY and higher sensory functions, such as OBJECT RECOGNITION. These functions reach their highest level of complexity in humans. By comparing brains across different species, what is most striking is the larger proportion of the cerebral cortex in higher mammals. This is in contrast to relatively smooth and thin cortex in lower mammals, or the cortex that is almost non-existent in reptiles or amphibians. Clearly, the process of ENCEPHALIZATION reached its peak in the human brain. Consistent with this, although the human brain weighs about 1400g and comprises only about 2% of total body weight, it consumes about 20% of oxygen in a resting adult. Local blood flow in different parts of the brain varies depending on the nature of mental activity and can be studied by using FUNCTIONAL NEUROIMAGING techniques. These techniques provide an exciting avenue for studying the neurobiological basis of higher psychological functions such as planning, creativity and artistic appreciation that are uniquely human.
Landmarks in the development of human communication
Published in Hearing, Balance and Communication, 2021
Giovanni Ruoppolo, Maria Nicastri
But what are the evolutionary modifications that have allowed the development of language and therefore such effective communication as to favour symbolic abstraction and the birth of culture? Among the most important we mention [4]:bipedalism, which has allowed man to free his hands from locomotor functions, dedicating them to technical functions, such as the construction of increasingly refined tools, and to communicative functions,the increase in the encephalization quotient, with a relative volume increase of the neocortical surface,the increase in social interactions due to even closer cooperation, an element already presents in anthropomorphic monkeys,the angulation of the skull base (Figure 1), resulting from the upright posture, which caused a downward displacement of the larynx with the enlargement of the resonance cavities which allowed the articulation of a very high number of vowel phonemes and greater mobility of the tongue and jaw, with the possibility of articulating a much greater number of consonant phonemes.