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

Maybe we"re not all that #evolved. At least, that"s what our #hands say... - http://clapway.com/2015/07/14/humans-have-primitive-hands-less-evolved-than-chimpanzees-234/

Humans are believed to be the most evolved species on the planet, but a recent study has concluded that humans actually have quite primitive hands compared to the hands of the chimpanzee, our closest cousin on the evolutionary tree.

Challenging Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

In what is being considered the best challenge to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, scientists from the United States and Spain have declared that humans might just have more primitive hands than chimpanzees. Their research found that human hands are still very similar to the hands of the last ancestor shared by humans and chimpanzees, which goes back as far as 6 million years.

On the contrary, chimpanzees have evolved and no longer have the same primitive hands that humans possess today, suggesting that humans hands are much more primitive than previously thought and did not develop through the selective processes of evolution and the development of stone tool making.

The Primitive Hands of Humans

George Washington University’s Sergio Almécija, along with several colleagues from New York’s Stony Brook University, conducted research on the proportion of the thumb to the other fingers in humans and apes. They measured living and fossilized hands of humans and apes, including early human relatives such as the Ardipithecus Ramidus (which was alive 4.4 million years ago and possessed hands quite similar to modern-day human hands, lending credence to the notion that humans have primitive hands).

What they found was that while humans maintained a very similar hand structure to the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, chimps began to develop different hands after they split off from that common ancestor. Their hands began to develop longer fingers in comparison to their thumbs, and it is thought that this was to accommodate the amount of time they spent hanging from trees.

Flawed From the Beginning?

Almécija, whose research was published in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday morning, stated that human evolution scenarios relying heavily on a common ancestor that is more chimp-like could be flawed to begin with. He said that even though modern chimpanzees might paint a picture of how hands evolved over time, the same does not necessarily apply to the entire animal. Humans might have primitive hands, but that does not necessarily mean that humans are not more evolved than our closest living relative.

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Humans Have Primitive Hands, Less Evolved Than Chimpanzees

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

Kenya: Prehistoric Stone Tools Predate Others - http://clapway.com/2015/05/21/kenya-prehistoric-stone-tools-predate-others-123/

Scientists doing research in Kenya have discovered prehistoric stone tools that are estimated to be more than three million years old, which is at least 700,000 years older than any tools previously found that were used by ancient humanoid species. They were dated using magnetic mineral deposits and volcanic ash in the area they were found in.

The prehistoric stone tools were accidentally discovered by archeologist Sonia Harmand from Stony Brook University and Jason Lewis a paleoanthropologist, also from Stony Brook University and Rutgers University, and the Turkana Basin Institute back in 2011 at a site called Lomekwi. The tools have been undergoing study and they findings were recently released. During their travel they discovered nearly 150 prehistoric stone tools such as those used by ancient humanoids to make things like anvils and hammers.

Prehistoric Stone Tools Will Help Learn About Ancient Humans

The newly found prehistoric stone tools are expected to help scientists learn about humanoid behavior and mental development of ancient humans. In fact, it was previously believed that the first of the ancient tool-making species were the first Homo sapiens, or more modern-age related humans. Now, with the discovery of prehistoric stone tools like this latest find, it could change that opinion.

The reason is that these prehistoric stone tools found during the scientists’ travel predate the earliest known Homo sapiens. The scientists believe that the makers of these prehistoric stone tools could possibly be a humanoid species called Kenyanthropus platyops or Australopithecus afarensis. According to scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History helping with the research, this fabulous discovery could help to solve some of the mysteries of earlier historical times for humanoids. In the past, the scientists thought there must be a method of stone tool making that predated the other tools that have been found prior to these examples of prehistoric stone tools, and this find helps to confirm that belief.

Prehistoric Stone Tools Used For Several Things

The prehistoric stone tools showed evidence of sharp-edged flakes scientists believe might have served to do things like cut meat. Scientists have believed that humans developed tools in order to cut meat, however many of the tools found would have been used for other reasons such as to pound open nuts, dig up and mash tubers and cut foliage as the ancient humans made their travel around in their environment.

In the course of their investigations, the scientists also found that the area was once lush with plants, not like the dryer savanna it is today. These tools are hoped to help discover how the ancient humans made the transition from using natural, organic tools like those used today by chimps, to consciously making stone tools, which would show advanced brain function. This leap in cognitive ability is what marks humans from animals, so the making of prehistoric stone tools is an exciting time in the evolution of humanoids that lead to the modern day humans we are today.

Kenya: Prehistoric Stone Tools Predate Others