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evolutionary neuroscience

·December 4, 2024·5 min read

How Evolution Shaped the Brain’s Understanding of Numbers

Human number cognition may be rooted in the putamen, a deep brain structure traditionally associated with movement rather than abstract thought. Neurosurgery patients demonstrated activity in this area while processing numbers as symbols, words, and concepts, suggesting that numerical understanding emerged early in evolution.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 3, 2024·5 min read

Gut Microbes May Have Powered Evolution of Larger Brains

A new study suggests that gut microbes played a key role in the evolution of larger brains in primates by influencing energy production and usage. Researchers implanted microbes from humans, squirrel monkeys (large-brained species), and macaques (small-brained species) into mice, observing that microbes from larger-brained primates enhanced energy production, while those from smaller-brained primates favored fat storage.

This shows a line of people, depicting evolution.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 29, 2024·4 min read

Human Brains Evolved Gradually, Not in Sudden Leaps

A new study reveals that modern humans, Neanderthals, and other relatives evolved larger brains through gradual changes within each species, overturning the idea of sudden leaps in brain size. Researchers used the largest-ever fossil dataset spanning 7 million years and advanced statistical methods to reconstruct brain size evolution.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·November 26, 2024·4 min read

DNA to AI: How Evolution Shapes Smarter Algorithms

A new AI algorithm inspired by the genome’s ability to compress vast information offers insights into brain function and potential tech applications. Researchers found that this algorithm performs tasks like image recognition and video games almost as effectively as fully trained AI networks.

This shows an ape looking at a computer monitor.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Visual Neuroscience

·November 26, 2024·3 min read

Great Apes’ Gaze Reveals Human-Like Event Perception

Great apes track events involving agents and patients, like humans, suggesting shared cognitive mechanisms. When watching video clips, apes alternated their gaze between agents (e.g., a cat) and patients (e.g., a mouse), similar to adult humans, though apes paid more attention to background details.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 20, 2024·4 min read

Chimpanzees Show Friendly Behaviors Are Contagious

Grooming and play behaviors in chimpanzees are contagious, fostering social bonds and harmony within their groups. Conducted at a wildlife orphanage, the research shows how observing others’ positive actions encourages similar behaviors, with grooming occurring more often among close partners and play thriving among younger chimps.

This shows an illustration of a robot, a tree and people.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 19, 2024·4 min read

How AI Could Shape Human Evolution in Subtle Yet Profound Ways

Artificial intelligence is becoming a pivotal force in human lives, prompting questions about its evolutionary effects. A new study explores how AI may influence human evolution through everyday interactions, likening human-AI dynamics to ecological relationships such as predation or competition. Potential evolutionary shifts include changes in brain size, attention spans, personality traits, and social behaviors, particularly through AI's impact on relationships and decision-making.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 19, 2024·5 min read

How Hunter-Gatherer Kids Learn Lifelong Skills by Age Six

Hunter-gatherer children in the Congo Basin learn critical skills like hunting, gathering, and childcare by age six or seven, thanks to a unique social learning environment. Unlike Western societies, where learning is primarily parent- or teacher-centered, these children gain knowledge from parents, peers, extended family, and unrelated adults within their small, egalitarian communities.

This shows the monkeys trying to solve a problem.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 18, 2024·4 min read

Social Tolerance Fuels Learning in Wild Capuchin Monkeys

Wild bearded capuchins use social learning to solve problems, influenced by social tolerance and group dynamics. Researchers observed the monkeys interacting with a puzzle-box and found that grooming partners and tolerant individuals were more likely to learn from each other.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 9, 2024·6 min read

Why Human Culture Never Stops Evolving

A new study proposes that human culture’s unique power lies not in its ability to accumulate knowledge, as once thought, but in its "open-endedness." Unlike animal cultures that reach limits in evolution, human culture continuously expands, adapting without bounds.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 8, 2024·4 min read

Chimpanzees’ Task Performance Changes When Observed by Humans

A new study finds that chimpanzees, like humans, are affected by being watched: their performance on computer tasks improved on difficult tasks with larger human audiences but declined on simpler ones. This phenomenon, known as the "audience effect," was previously thought to be unique to humans and linked to reputation management. The results suggest that sensitivity to being observed may have evolved before human society developed its complex reputation-based social structures.

Featured Neuroscience

·November 1, 2024·3 min read

Cooperative Care Influences Brain Development in Humans and Marmosets

Cooperative breeding influences brain development in common marmosets and humans, allowing longer periods for social learning. Marmoset brains, like human brains, develop socio-cognitive regions slowly, maturing in early adulthood.

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evolutionary neuroscience

How Evolution Shaped the Brain’s Understanding of Numbers

Gut Microbes May Have Powered Evolution of Larger Brains

Human Brains Evolved Gradually, Not in Sudden Leaps

DNA to AI: How Evolution Shapes Smarter Algorithms

Great Apes’ Gaze Reveals Human-Like Event Perception

How Hunter-Gatherer Kids Learn Lifelong Skills by Age Six

Chimpanzees’ Task Performance Changes When Observed by Humans

Low-Normal B12 Levels Linked to Slower Brain Processing

Genetic Mutation Linked to Schizophrenia Alters Brain Function

Repurposed Blood Pressure Drug May Treat ADHD

Optimism and Pessimism Shape Resilience and Risk

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