Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Heads UP: Problem Solving Pushed Bright Primates Toward Bigger Brains
Science News ^ | 3-16-2002 | Bruce Bower

Posted on 03/21/2002 5:49:37 PM PST by blam

Week of March 16, 2002; Vol. 161, No. 11

Heads Up: Problem solving pushed bright primates toward bigger brains

Bruce Bower

Progressively larger brains evolved in primates of all stripes, not just humans. We can thank a common capacity for solving a broad range of problems, from coordinating social alliances to inventing tools, according to a new study.

This conclusion challenges a popular theory that big, smart brains arose primarily because they afforded advantages when it came to negotiating complex social situations during human evolution.

"The ability to learn from others, invent new behaviors, and use tools may have [also] played pivotal roles in primate-brain evolution," say Simon M. Reader of McGill University in Montreal and Kevin N. Laland of the University of Cambridge in England. In an upcoming report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the two zoologists chronicle links between an array of intelligent behaviors and enhanced brain size in primates.

Reader and Laland examined approximately 1,000 scientific studies of behavior in 116 of the world's 203 known primate species. They identified 553 instances of animals discovering new solutions to survival-related problems, 445 observations of individuals learning skills and acquiring information from others, and 607 episodes of tool use.

The researchers then consulted previously obtained data on brain size relative to body size in different primates. In particular, they focused on the volume of the structures that make up what scientists call the executive brain, a frontal region thought to be crucial for complex thinking.

Species that have the proportionately largest executive brains are the ones that most often innovate, learn from others, and use tools, Reader and Laland contend. These three facets of intelligence vary together as primate brains enlarge, they say. There's no evidence in any species of an evolutionary trade-off between these traits, such as an increase in innovation accompanying a decline in social learning.

A related report by neuroscientist Barbara L. Finlay of Cornell University and her colleagues concluded that different brain regions in mammals enlarged all together during mammalian evolution, not in piecemeal fashion related to specific functions. Whole-brain evolution was driven by changes in the timing of early brain development in individuals, says Finlay. In all species, late-generated structures—including the executive brain—have grown the largest, Finlay's team asserted in the April 2001 Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Reader and Laland provide "important new evidence" that wide-ranging thinking skills shared by many primate species encouraged the evolution of large brains, comment psychologist Robert M. Seyfarth and biologist Dorothy L. Cheney, both of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, in a comment published with the new report.

They suggest that intellectual accomplishments unique to people, such as language use, may have played a smaller role in the evolution of our sizable brains than has often been thought.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: headsupproblem
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

1 posted on 03/21/2002 5:49:38 PM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: blam
"...that different brain regions in mammals enlarged all together during mammalian evolution, not in piecemeal fashion related to specific functions."

As always, words like "arose suddenly in substantially its present form", or "evolved rapidly with few if any intermediate stages".

More of the Punctuated Equilibrium or Hopeful Monster nonsense.

Evolutionary Biology has all of the meaning of a beer-induced dorm bull session.

2 posted on 03/21/2002 6:03:03 PM PST by keithtoo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam
BTTT
3 posted on 03/21/2002 6:06:15 PM PST by rightofrush
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: keithtoo
My son said it all. He said if there ever was any such thing as evolution, we would all have evolved into the same thing, there would no longer be any other animal forms, just humans. I think he is right. I don't discount that God is able to evolve or mutate us. I just believe that HE is capable of creating us in HIS own image. I have no problem believing in the miracle of creation of life after giving birth to three children. (who are now 18, 19, and 21 - my precious blessings in life!)

Question: what is the most important gift any father can give to his children?
To love their mother!

4 posted on 03/21/2002 6:07:15 PM PST by buffyt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: blam; Patrick Henry; Quila; Rudder; Donh; VadeRetro; Radio Astronomer; Travis McGee; Physicist...
(((ping))))


5 posted on 03/21/2002 6:09:44 PM PST by Sabertooth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All
All things in existence are changing...

All the time...

6 posted on 03/21/2002 6:10:21 PM PST by Ferris
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
JimRob just sent me a FR mail saying that this article should have benn posted in 'General Interest', just for your information. (I'm not sure I know how to do that)
7 posted on 03/21/2002 6:24:02 PM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: blam
Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs

Don't worry, we're not in danger yet.

8 posted on 03/21/2002 6:28:09 PM PST by zoso82t
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam
JimRob just sent me a FR mail saying that this article should have benn posted in 'General Interest'

Yeah?

I don't llike the new seperate forums. They could have just kept one forum, but color-coded General Interest differently from News threads, for easy searching.

It's a cool article, and FR is better off not Balkanized.




9 posted on 03/21/2002 6:31:07 PM PST by Sabertooth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Ferris
All things in existence are changing...

All the time...

People have always said that.




10 posted on 03/21/2002 6:34:22 PM PST by Sabertooth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: blam
The down side seem to be that man creates, consciously or subconsciously, additional and more complex problem so that he can use this problem-solving ability. It's a vicious cycle.
11 posted on 03/21/2002 6:37:52 PM PST by Consort
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: keithtoo
Richard Goldsmith's "Hopeful Monster" theory is a dead letter. Punk eek does not postulate the kind of massive mutational leaps which Goldsmith relied on. It's a Darwinian scenario. If changes come fast, it's because populations are small when they're under intense selection pressure.

The article only points out that one region of the brain did not likely get way out in front of the others in the march to bigger brains. The regions coevolved because the species has to stay fit, after all. The different brain areas are mutually dependent.

12 posted on 03/21/2002 6:41:37 PM PST by VadeRetro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Ferris
Truth--science doesn't change...culture-ideologies do like the weather--fashions!
13 posted on 03/21/2002 6:51:03 PM PST by f.Christian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
I know there is no possible way to not ping me on idiot threads, but can you add a symbol or question marks?

:>)

I am gearing up for anti-bushbots/Clinton is a nice guy/next 3 years.

14 posted on 03/21/2002 7:02:28 PM PST by sarasmom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: blam
If you don't believe this article, just ask the guys who were caught playing buttball.
15 posted on 03/21/2002 7:27:59 PM PST by AD from SpringBay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: blam
"A related report by neuroscientist Barbara L. Finlay of Cornell University and her colleagues concluded that different brain regions in mammals enlarged all together during mammalian evolution, not in piecemeal fashion related to specific functions."

Doesn't this blow the Theory of Evolution to smithereens? All mammal brains enlarged? All mammals weren't facing the same pressure on survival. They don't know squat.

16 posted on 03/21/2002 8:11:26 PM PST by Kermit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kermit
"Doesn't this blow the Theory of Evolution to smithereens? All mammal brains enlarged? All mammals weren't facing the same pressure on survival. They don't know squat."

Uh, the article does NOT say "all mammal brains"--it says "all PRIMATE brains"--which is a whole different thing. PRIMATES are the very tiny branch of mammals to which H.S.S. (homo sapiens sapiens) belongs. It is not particulary surprising that a similar evolutionary feature is found there, and in no way "blows evolution to smitereens". If anything, the finding SUPPORTS evolution.

17 posted on 03/22/2002 5:22:05 AM PST by Wonder Warthog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Sabertooth
People have always said that.

The Frog version starts with "Plus ça change . . ."

18 posted on 03/22/2002 7:45:14 AM PST by VadeRetro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Wonder Warthog
You know, when I first was writing my comment I wrote "all primates", then I re-read the sentence. It says all mammal brains. Look at the italicized part of my post. It seems to mean, evolution still is blown to smithereens, if all primate brains in the hundred plus species they looked at all grew. Why would South American primate brains grow and African or Asian primate brains grow? Wouldn't each species be facing different situations?
19 posted on 03/22/2002 6:29:58 PM PST by Kermit
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Kermit
"It seems to mean, evolution still is blown to smithereens, if all primate brains in the hundred plus species they looked at all grew. Why would South American primate brains grow and African or Asian primate brains grow? Wouldn't each species be facing different situations?"

No. All it says is that the basic mutation that pushed the primates toward an emphasis on brain-power applied to problem solving occurred much earlier in evolution than initially thought. OF COURSE they faced different situations--that is why they are different today.

20 posted on 03/23/2002 3:19:29 PM PST by Wonder Warthog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson