Human Primate Brains
According to Rilling (2014), understanding the evolution of the unique characteristics of the human brain requires studying the brain of other living primate species. In other words, a specific evolutionary change in the human brain cannot be inferred to be unique to the human lineage unless other species sharing a last common ancestor don’t have it. That being said, Rilling emphasizes the role of comparative neuroimaging to investigate the similarities and differences between human and non-human primate brains, and highlights the different imaging techniques that have been used in multiple studies including structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), functional MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI).
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(2005) provide an overview of the “ecological dominance-social competition” (EDSC) model as an explanation to the unique evolution of human cognitive adaptations and specific traits that make us armed with different sets of skills compared to other species. The article then presents an analysis of some of the major human features and evaluates their compatibility with the EDSC model, relying on the hominin fossil record and human neurobiology and cognition as the main two empirical resources. Flinn et al. begin with presenting different hypotheses that have been explored to explain the evolution of human cognition. According to the authors, many of these hypotheses included ecological problem solving, hunting, a sudden genetic change, sexual selection (female choice hypothesis) and the consideration of the the brain as a “social tool”. All of them encountered limitations in explaining how our hominin ancestors diverged from other species in terms of their cognitive capabilities. For instance, the ecological problem solving and hunting models are not generally accepted since many other species also engage in activities like tool use and scavenging, in addition to the fact they do not account for other aspects that are far from functionality like art and religion. The female choice hypothesis states that females chose to mate only with increasingly intelligent males, which directly acts as a selective pressure within the population towards higher cognitive abilities. However, the lack of sex differences in the overall level of intelligence presents as an unnegligible challenge to this theory (Flinn et al., 2015,
(2005) provide an overview of the “ecological dominance-social competition” (EDSC) model as an explanation to the unique evolution of human cognitive adaptations and specific traits that make us armed with different sets of skills compared to other species. The article then presents an analysis of some of the major human features and evaluates their compatibility with the EDSC model, relying on the hominin fossil record and human neurobiology and cognition as the main two empirical resources. Flinn et al. begin with presenting different hypotheses that have been explored to explain the evolution of human cognition. According to the authors, many of these hypotheses included ecological problem solving, hunting, a sudden genetic change, sexual selection (female choice hypothesis) and the consideration of the the brain as a “social tool”. All of them encountered limitations in explaining how our hominin ancestors diverged from other species in terms of their cognitive capabilities. For instance, the ecological problem solving and hunting models are not generally accepted since many other species also engage in activities like tool use and scavenging, in addition to the fact they do not account for other aspects that are far from functionality like art and religion. The female choice hypothesis states that females chose to mate only with increasingly intelligent males, which directly acts as a selective pressure within the population towards higher cognitive abilities. However, the lack of sex differences in the overall level of intelligence presents as an unnegligible challenge to this theory (Flinn et al., 2015,