Another piece of offbeat news. The #paleo #diet ain"t all its cracked up to be? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/09/move-over-paleo-consuming-carbs-made-us-smarter-244/

While the paleo diet may still be popular, a new study suggests that consuming carbs in the form of starches was the key to accelerating brain expansion in early human evolution, effectively making us smarter as we evolved larger brains.

Consumption of Carbs Responsible for Brain Growth, Increased Intelligence

A key issue in the human evolution timeline has focused on human brain evolution, specifically why we grew such large, complex brains and how. While the answers have yet been clearly defined, it is a widely accepted assumption that the size of our brains is somehow connected to a dietary change within the past 3 million years.

While most studies relied on evidence of increased meat consumption (we’re looking at you, Paleo Diet advocates!), other studies highlighted the importance of the invention and continued development of cooking as they factors for our brain size increase.

However, a new study by Dr. Karen Hardy and researchers is arguing that based on evidence from archaeological, anthropological, genetic, physiological, and anatomical data, it is not meat consumption that drove the brain to accelerate expansion, but rather consumption of dietary carbohydrates.

So stock up on the potatoes, rice, and whole-grain breads as this study breaks into the health and diet arena of the scientific community to argue for human evolution (and smarter evolution at that!) through eating carbs in the form of starches.

Are All Diets Equal? The Case for Carbs in Brain Evolution

The study, published in The Quarterly Review of Biology does not necessarily argue against the role that meat consumption played in the human brain’s evolution. However, it does argue that plant-based foods (carbs) were absolutely essential in the evolution and expansion of the human brain.

During the Pleistocene epoch, the human brain was undergoing many rapid changes. One of these was an increase of brain size and function.

The study points out that evidence of increased carbohydrate consumption, along with the adaptive role that cooking had to play in order to improve the ability to digest the starchy carbs, had a tremendous impact on the brain’s development.

Cooking starches (think of things such as putting a potato on the roast) helped improve the digestibility of the foods. It also provided a source of preformed glucose, which was used by the developing brain to meet high glucose demands, including red blood cells production, brain function, and even fetal development.

Digestible carbs were absolutely needed for the increased demands of the growing brain during this time. What also may have helped fuel carbs’ role in brain evolution was the increase of salivary amylase genes that increased starches energy yield after cooking.

Consuming Carbs, Cooking, and Creating Bigger, Better Brains

There are some merits to the Paleo Diet, including limited sugar consumption, it may not be the true “caveman” diet during some ages of the human evolution timeline that dates back to 3 million years.

Through much of the research focus on diet and its role in evolution, carbohydates have been overlooked. That is until Dr. Hardy and her team came along to clear up some of the misconceptions the starches carry.

The study showed that the brain needs up to 25% of the body’s energy, as well as at least 60% of its blood glucose. Only a diet rich in dietary carbohydrates could supply such a high glucose demand.

This same glucose need is effectively doubled during human pregnancy and lactation, which in the case of low-carbohydrate diets, would be too short of a supply to support the health of the mother and baby.

The research goes on to include that the availability of starches were found all over the world, available to all ancestral civilizations, whether in the form of tubers, seeds, fruits, or nuts.

What’s more is that as the art and science of cooking spread through the world, the raw starches became more easily digestible. Couple that with the fact that an increased presence of salivary amylase genes, which helps to digest starches as well, and the evidence points to carbs being our friends.

While eating meat most likely started the evolution of the human brains, the coevolution of cooking and consuming carbs in the form of starches accelerated the evolution to help make a perfect diet to increase our smarts and chances of survival.

Additional Image Credit to Ryan Raffa
Additional Image Credit to Alessandro Valli

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Move Over Paleo! Consuming Carbs Made Us Smarter

A skull discovery that will change the way we think about human brain evolution. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/07/15-million-year-old-monkey-skull-once-housed-small-complex-brain-232/

Using high-resolution x-ray computer imaging technology, scientists from Duke University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have been able to construct a 3-D model of the brain that was once housed in a 15-million-year-old monkey skull.

The ancient monkey skull belongs to the species of Old World monkeys known as Victoriapithecus, which includes baboons and macaques. The skull was originally found in 1997 in Lake Victoria in Kenya.

15-Million-Year-Old Secrets Uncovered

A study co-authored by Lauren Gonzales of Duke University and Fred Spoor of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology sheds some light on some long-held secrets of the ancient skull.

Prior to their research, it was commonly thought and generally accepted that primate brains first grew in size, and then in complexity. However, the 3-D brain image that they were able to construct after using high-resolution x-ray imaging, shattered those previously accepted notions.

Their findings indicated that contrary to what had previously been believed of brain development in primates, the brain belonging to the 15-million-year-old monkey skull was actually quite complex despite being so small. Compared to modern-day monkeys of similar body size, the Victoriapithecus brain was estimated by Gonzales and Spoor to have only been about 36 cubic centimeters, less than half of their modern day counterparts.

The Complexities of a 15-Million-Year-Old Brain

What was truly fascinating about Gonzales and Spoor’s findings is the composition of the 15-million-year-old monkey skull’s brain. Their CT scans showed that the tiny brain housed in the ancient skull actually had a plethora of wrinkles and folds, indicating a vastly complex brain. In addition to the many wrinkles and folds, however, another stunning discovery was made.

The 3-D model showed that the olfactory bulb, which is the part of the brain used to perceive and interpret smells, was actually quite large. It had a size that was three times bigger than expected of a primate of that size, indicating that its sense of smell was highly elevated compared to primates of today. In comparison, primates of today have much larger brains, but much smaller olfactory bulbs. It is believed that this is due to a trade-off that occurred as sight improved over time.

The researchers believe that this means that the ancient primate that the 15-million-year-old monkey skull belonged to–quite possibly–did not have to make such a trade-off and instead had held on to both senses.

Implications of the Monkey Skull Discovery

The findings were published in the July 3 issue of Nature Communications, and despite dealing with something as ancient as a 15-million-year-old monkey skull, they are important because they are the only clues unearthed so far as to how primate brains developed over time. They also hint that the small brain size of the human ancestor homo floresiensis, the skull of which was discovered in Indonesia in 2003, isn’t as profound as had previously been thought. The findings of the study on the 15-million-year-old monkey skull and its brain will pave the way for future researchers looking into the development of primate brains over the course of history.

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15-Million-Year-Old Monkey Skull Once Housed Small, Complex Brain

Why don"t you believe? Why do you believe? Find out why. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/01/skeptical-about-human-evolution-it-may-be-your-thinking-style-234/

A study recently published in the journal Cognition explains that some people may be more skeptical of human evolution as a result of their cognitive styles. Analytical thinkers are more likely to favor human evolution, while intuitive thinkers believe in creationism.

Did the Human Brain Evolve to Include Skepticism of Human Evolution?

While natural selection is widely accepted in the scientific community today, there is still great debate about the validity of the science particularly in religious groups who adhere to creationist beliefs. A new study conducted by psychologist Will Gervais suggests that the very evolution of the brain is the reason why the debate about human evolution still exists.

Gervais, an assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Kentucky, conducted the experiment to measure a number of factors, including cultural, religious and political influence, and the extent to which these factors affected a person’s belief in evolution. The findings showed an association between a person’s final decision on evolution’s validity and his or her specific cognitive processing style.

How the Human Brain Thinks: Analytical and Intuitive Cognitive Styles

Gervais divided the test subjects, hundreds of undergraduate students from Kentucky, into two groups according to cognitive style: analytical cognitive thinkers and intuitive cognitive thinkers.

The analytical cognitive thinker is better at processing knowledge through evaluating, reasoning, judging, and computing information. On the other hand, the intuitive thinker is better equipped to use a more non-judgmental approach to acquiring knowledge without using inferences to reason.

Analytical thinkers must rely on facts, figures, and evidence, while intuitive thinkers rely on a more spiritual notion and their deep, inner feelings on the subject.

Analytical Brains Think Evolution, Intuitive Brains Believe Creationism

Gervais found that the analytical thinkers were more likely to believe in human evolution, even when they were strongly religious. The intuitive thinkers, by contrast, had an easier time rejecting the theory of evolution. He noted that more of the analytical thinkers had less religious beliefs than their intuitive counterparts.

One of Dr. Gervais’s theories is that evolution developed the human brain to accept either evolution or creationism because, as humans, we tend to believe in sense, purpose, and order. The analytical brain thinks that evolution is the key to sense and purpose and the intuitive brain believes that creationism is the order in which sense and purpose is found.

The human brain is a marvelous creation and whether we believe in creationism or evolution, this research concludes our specific cognitive style provides a mental predisposition to that belief.

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Skeptical About Human Evolution? It May Be Your Thinking Style