Book contents
- The Evolution of Everything
- The Evolution of Everything
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure Credits
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Part I Introduction to the Scientific Perspective on the Past
- Chapter 2: The Origins of the Universe
- Chapter 3: The Structure and History of the Earth
- Chapter 4: Life
- Chapter 5: Evolution
- Chapter 6: Genetics
- Chapter 7: The Evolution of Complex Life
- Chapter 8: The Cambrian Explosion
- Chapter 9: Fish and Land Animals
- Chapter 10: Protohumans
- Chapter 11: The Genus Homo
- Chapter 12: Human Variation
- Chapter 13: Evolution and Human Behavior
- Chapter 14: Brain Evolution
- Chapter 15: Chaos and Complexity
- Part II Science and History
- Additional Readings
- Index
Chapter 14: - Brain Evolution
from Part I - Introduction to the Scientific Perspective on the Past
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2022
- The Evolution of Everything
- The Evolution of Everything
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure Credits
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Part I Introduction to the Scientific Perspective on the Past
- Chapter 2: The Origins of the Universe
- Chapter 3: The Structure and History of the Earth
- Chapter 4: Life
- Chapter 5: Evolution
- Chapter 6: Genetics
- Chapter 7: The Evolution of Complex Life
- Chapter 8: The Cambrian Explosion
- Chapter 9: Fish and Land Animals
- Chapter 10: Protohumans
- Chapter 11: The Genus Homo
- Chapter 12: Human Variation
- Chapter 13: Evolution and Human Behavior
- Chapter 14: Brain Evolution
- Chapter 15: Chaos and Complexity
- Part II Science and History
- Additional Readings
- Index
Summary
This chapter discusses the ways in which natural selection has acted on the animal and primate brain, demonstrating that the human brain is better at some tasks, whereas other animals are better at certain others (e.g. special memory and chimpanzees). Human brains are the results of selection for very specific tasks, largely relating to social information. It also discusses the role of metabolism in brain evolution, reviewing the ‘expensive tissue hypothesis’. It summarizes brain anatomy, and shows that, anatomically, the human brain is essentially a scaled-up primate brain. Finally, it discusses the idea of consciousness, the ways we evaluate it in other animals, and how it may have arisen.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Evolution of EverythingThe Patterns and Causes of Big History, pp. 192 - 207Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022