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The human advantage : a new understanding of how our brain became remarkable / Susan Herculano-Houzel
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The human advantage : a new understanding of how our brain became remarkable / Susan Herculano-Houzel

by Suzana Herculano-Houzel

This work explores human brain evolution, analysing how superior cognitive abilities result from a high density of neurons enabled by the advent of cooking. It examines how efficient calorie intake supported the development of the cerebral cortex compared to other primates.

Accession 11677 ISBN 9780262034258 Publisher MIT Press
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Biology Culture Evolution Human Evolution Humans Life Sciences Psychology Science Social Sciences The Brain
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The human advantage : a new understanding of how our brain became remarkable / Susan Herculano-Houzel
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Herculano-Houzel shows that it is not the size of our brain that matters but the fact 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.Because we are primates, ingesting more calories in less time made possible the rapid acquisition of a huge number of neurons in the still fairly small cerebral cortex -- the part of the brain responsible for finding patterns, reasoning, developing technology, and passing it on through culture. Herculano-Houzel shows us how she came to these conclusions -- making brain soup to determine the number of neurons in the brain, for example, and bringing animal brains in a suitcase through customs.

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Suzana Herculano-Houzel
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Science, Psychology, Life sciences, Culture, Evolution (Biology), Biology, Brain, Central nervous system, Nervous system, Organs (Anatomy), Anatomy, Cognition, Human evolution, Neurophysiology, Neurobiology, Neurosciences, Medical sciences, Evolutionary psychology, Behaviour evolution, Social evolution, Human behaviour -- Evolution, Brain -- Evolution, Cognitive neuroscience, Neuropsychology, Nervous system -- Evolution, Brain -- Research
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