Brain evolution
How did we get so smart?
Exploring how human beings are "infovores" whose brains love to learn. Children may enjoy Sesame Street's fast pace because they get a "click of comprehension" from each brief scene. From hand-held DVD players to hundred-inch plasma screens, much of today's technology is driven by the human appetite for pleasure through visual and auditory stimulation. What creates this appetite? Neuropsychologists have found that visual input activates receptors in the parts of the brain associated with pleasure and reward, and that the brain associates new images with old while also responding strongly to new ones.
Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story. Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened -- and has become a powerful voice for brain recovery.
Mirror neurons are used to imitate others and acquire language
BRAIN AND MUSIC
Brain Evolution and the Function of Music
The Relationship of Music to the Melody of Speech and to
Syntactic Processing Disorders in Aphasia
Two new empirical studies address the relationship between music
and language. The first focuses on melody and uses research in
phonetics to investigate the long-held notion that instrumental
music reflects speech patterns in a composer's native language.
The second focuses on syntax and addresses the relationship
between musical and linguistic syntactic processing via the
study of aphasia, an approach that has been explored very
little. The results of these two studies add to a growing body
of evidence linking music and language with regard to structural
patterns and brain processing.
The Evolution of Music in Comparative Perspective
In this paper, I briefly review some comparative data that
provide an empirical basis for research on the evolution of
music making in humans. First, a brief comparison of music and
language leads to discussion of design features of music,
suggesting a deep connection between the biology of music and
language. I then selectively review data on animal "music."
Examining sound production in animals, we find examples of
repeated convergent evolution or analogy (the evolution of vocal
learning of complex songs in birds, whales, and seals). A
fascinating but overlooked potential homology to instrumental
music is provided by manual percussion in African apes. Such
comparative behavioral data, combined with neuroscientific and
developmental data, provide an important starting point for any
hypothesis about how or why human music evolved. Regarding these
functional and phylogenetic questions, I discuss some previously
proposed functions of music, including Pinker's "cheesecake"
hypothesis; Darwin's and others' sexual selection model;
Dunbar's group "grooming" hypothesis; and Trehub's caregiving
model. I conclude that only the last hypothesis receives strong
support from currently available data. I end with a brief
synopsis of Darwin's model of a songlike musical
"protolanguage," concluding that Darwin's model is consistent
with much of the available evidence concerning the evolution of
both music and language. There is a rich future for empirical
investigations of the evolution of music, both in investigations
of individual differences among humans, and in interspecific
investigations of musical abilities in other animals, especially
those of our ape cousins, about which we know little.
Universal Footprint: Power Laws
Dear Val,
What in the world could the answer be to the following question: "
Our brains expanded at he same rate in (exponent about 1.5)
evolution as did the antlers of giant deer and horns of giant
sheep! ... Why?"
And why are periglacial environments, environments poor to the
naked eye, richer than tropical environments, which seem very,
very rich?
How does the PERCEPTION of what's trash and what's treasure, of
what's a resource and what's not, feed into the equation?
Seemingly the bigger the brain, the more likely its owner is to
see resources where smaller brained creatures obstacles and
emptiness. But is this true?
Deer presumably inherit the strategies that tell them what is
trash and what is treasure--what is food and what is not. They
don't make discoveries that turn yesterday's waste into tomorrow's
resource, the way human inventors do. And deer don't have the
repository of solutions inventors draw from, then add their
discoveries to--culture.
So why do the same formulae apply in the case of deer and of
humans? Why do deer find the north, with its eight months of
scarcity, richer than the south, with its twelve months of
lushness?
Where does the technology that produces clothing, shelter, and
tools for hunting and harvesting fit? What analog of this
technology is available to the deer?
Are deer antlers useful for anything--for scraping lichen and moss
off of rocks, for example? Or are they simply what most of us have
always thought--gaudy displays of excess evolved to appeal to the
females of the species?
And why does the gaudy display of excess show up so often in a
cosmos that we think obeys strict laws of frugality?
How does this extravagance fit into the notions of economy that
underlie Paul Werbos' Laplaceian math?
And how does this excess production of new form fit into a
universe that many think is ruled by the form-destroying processes
of entropy? ~
Howard Bloom
Dear Howard,
You asked two questions:
What in the world could the answer be to the following question:
"Our brains expanded at he same rate in (exponent about 1.5)
evolution as did the antlers of giant deer and horns of giant
sheep! ... Why?"
And why are periglacial environments, environments poor to the
naked eye, richer than tropical environments, which seem very,
very rich?
They are good questions, which I think I can answer. In the first,
the similarity extends much beyond the fact that both, horns and
brains, grow within or from skull bones! Large antlers/horns as
well as brains stand, in an odd way, for supreme, highly adaptive
all-round ability, for supreme competence and confidence. However,
let me start at the real beginning.
Antlers as well as the cerebral cortex (the largest part of the
brain) are both tissues of low growth priority. That is, they only
grow when the blood stream has supplied all other tissues with
their required energy and nutrients.
Antlers and brains thus both depend for maximum growth on
superabundant food of the highest quality
. The brain in addititon to that superlative nutrition requires
hard, but diverse exercise in order to grow.
It's like a muscle: no exercise, no growth! The broader the
range of abilities mastered the larger the brain! Brain size is
not related to excellence in a task, but in many tasks.
Therefore, very large brains can only occur together with an
athletic body and large body size.
And that is the very picture of our wild, ice age ancestors from
the upper Paleolithic in the cold, but productive periglacial
zones. (It also applies to Neanderthal). The average Cro-magnid,
athetic, six-foot plus, and with a brain 20% larger than moderns
was a superior human specimen to Val Geist on every count!
As to antlers, they also grow only if there is lots and lots of
excellent food. However, here is the rub! In deer societies the
females occupy the most secure ground and graze the daylights out
of it. For females and young the primary goal is security from
predators, and they will gladly accept second rate food to achieve
that. Consequently, males cannot thrive on the land occupied by
the females. If they want to eat well, as they are driven to do as
only large males are successful breeders so chosen by females,
they must seek superior feeding grounds. However superior feeding
areas are insecure. That is, to eat well is associated with much
greater danger from predators and, consequently, more males get
killed than females. Therefore, the larger the antlers of the
male, the better he has succeeded feeding in very dangerous areas
while outwitting and outrunning predators. Since antlers are
tissues of low growth priority their size is directly related to
superior competence of the male precisely the male the female will
choose for mating.
There is no escape from this: to grow into a superior specimen the
young male deer must leave the poor feeding grounds of mother
where he was born and raised and seek boldly, cleverly,
persistently - the best food in the most insecure, dangerous
localities. His antler size proves his success as a hero! The
bigger the more heroic and smart his conduct.
That's within a species.
Big antlers turn on deer fames and big intelligence in human males
turns on females. So big antlers and big brains are probably
organs of sexual selection, formed by ladies choice!
Now antler size in deer and brain size in humans progress in size,
stepwise from the equator outward towards the poles. Each step
away from the Equatorial Forests towards the poles increases the
climates seasonality and severity as shown by Savannah, Steppe,
Deserts, Temerate zones, Periglacial, Arctic/Alpine. Ungulates and
omnivores many times, but Primates only once, bud off discrete
“species” or “forms” from the tropic to the Arctic. Note: in this
progression of new “forms” each has to del with the consequences
of increased seasonality, with increasing extremes in climate,
with ever wider fluctuations temporally and geographically of
resource abundance. Food availability and security demands are
totally different in spring, than in summer, than in fall, than in
winter. The further from the equator, the greater the demand on
the diversity of skills and information to be mastered and brain
size keeps pace with that. Another important point: as poulations
are limited by the scarce food supplies of winter, they are
increasingly overwhelmed by the abundance of foods during the
productivity pulse of summer. So, no productivity pulse in
tropical moist forests, some pulse in Savannah, good pulse in
steppe, better pulse in temperate zones good, large pulse in cold
temperate, sharp but tall productivity spike in the Arctic/Alpine.
During the productivity spike individuals enjoy freedome from want
or luxury. The further north the greter the luxury except for
time! Towards the Arctic the spike becomes shorter and shorter not
enough Time to grow! Summer in the Arctic is very productive, but
too short to allow luxurious body growth.
And another factor: in the tropics leaching drains fertility from
the land making it nutrient poor except where nutrients are washed
into soils deposited by rivers alluvial soils. In the north
glaciatons have liberated fertility from ground up rock. Ergo, our
glaciated north is filthy rich in fertility. Filthy rich!
Therefore the progression of species adapts each species to
incasing seasonal luxury totally missing in the moist tropics. In
the tropics ferocious competition for nutrients drives species
into narrow specialization increasing biodiversity. Each species,
though is of minimum design and struggling to make ends meet. In
the north, one species does what several species do in the
tropics, lowering biodiversity. Also, logically, each northern
species grows during the productivity pulse and stores fat for the
bad times ahead in winter lacking in tropical forms. Ergo, we are
filthy fat and chimps and gorillas are not!
Now lets quickly go through the species progression south top
north in the only primate lineage anthropoids - which was able to
achieve this, what has been achieved many, many times by
ungulates. Note the rogression inro climatic severity and its
ecological repercussions.
- primitive tropical moist forest ancestor with chimp/bonobo adaptations holding the genetic foundations for human evolution.
- the Savannah-adapted gracile Australopithecu s form, breaking free from territoriality by adapting to the “selfish herd”. Surface forager in the most productive tropical ecosystems. Climbs trees and builds nests for security at night.
- The first advance into the dry, seasonal step braking radically with the anthropoid adaptation by (a) being able to survive predators on the ground at night, (b) discovers underground feeding for stored plant foods (tubers, corms, bulbs, roots) which are only accessible through digging sticks which in turn need to be sculptured with stone tools from tough branches covered densely with sharp spines (tools to make tools) (c) begin to tap into the huge protein stores as represented by the ungulate biomass of the steppe. (d) almost certainly: begin to explore the fat and protein rich foods hidden! in the inter-tidal zones along ocean shores as are steppe plant foods. All this generates additional profound changes away from the chimp ancestor. This is the Homo habilis/erectus form, the first true humans.
- With the first major glacitation about 1.9 m y ago, the beginning of the Pleistocene, this new form hardens its steppe adaptations and bypassing the desert begins to invade de progressively the temperate zones. About a dozen or more major glaciations follow, desiccating Africa merciless and exterminating all human advances north of the Eurasian mountain chains again and again. Still spread to Europe and Asia persist. This is the 1.5 my progression of our parent species Homo erectus.
- Huge penultimate glaciation 225 000 y ago desiccates Africa crisp and our parent species cannot make it and dies out. Two branches of it however transform to supreme desert conditions, a gracile form (us) and a robust form (Neanderthal). Jump in brain size!
- Neanderthal first and the gracile form later, invade the herbivore-rich periglacial zones in Eurasia, develop advanced technology and soon culture as we know it. Both are biologically grotesque and fat Ice Age giants within a fauna of grotesque and fat Ice Age giants (its all dreadfully “biologica!”). Superlative luxury body and brain development in both forms till Neanderthal fades away, and the superlatively developed European specimen fade away with the end of the last glaciation, being replaced by a small-brained starvation culture (Mesolithic) followed by agriculture (followed by genetic decay, and loss of brain size etc).
- Meanwhile, one late-glacial branch of the graciles branches out into inner Asia and develops even more brain in a process of neotinization. The supremely cold adapted mongoloid people evolve that colonize the Arctic/Alpine and north America, but only with and after mega-faunal extinctions (earlier attempts by ur-caucasoids and Ainu failed!).
So much for the thumb-nail sketch! Note: no other primate went
past the horrific barriers of the African dry steppe! In crashing
through we became humans.
So, antlers and brains both depend on ecological riches, and such
are found increasingly the closer one gets to the fertile soils
formed by glacial actions and warm, moist summers. However, the
price to pay is acquisition of competence to deal with
increasingly more complex ecological demands.
Cheers, Val Geist
THE FUTURE OF OUR BRAINS IS THE POINT OF SIGULARITY
While Americans debate human evolution, the pace of evolution itself is about to explode, says Scientist and Futurist Ray Kurzweil . In this century, he and others say, humans will reach what they call "the Singularity": the moment when man and machine, humans and their technology, become one. Kurzweil foresees human intelligence vastly outstripped by computer intelligence and then wholly merged with that intelligence in this century, within a few decades.
A bot that passed the Turing Test
Software Tricks People into thinking It Is Human
I asked it if I am fat and
it said, "I don't know. You are a computer."
I decided to test the online version, which is supposedly a bit
more stupid than the version that passed the Turing test:
One of the disclaimers at the bottom of the page reads:
"PLEASE NOTE: Cleverbot learns from real people - things it says
may seem inappropriate - use with discretion, and at YOUR OWN
RISK"
So I decided to have a chat
Me: "Should I lose weight?"
CleverBot: "You should."
... and ended like:
Me [angry and frustrated]: Do you think all women should starve?
CB: Yes.
Me: You are sexist.
CB: I know . And I don't care.
Ok, so, definitely, CleverBot passed the Turing test for me. And
it has well learnt from men....