«They have found a smoking gun in the human genome that connects a regulatory element with a proposed pathway
for increasing brain size,» says Todd Preuss, a neuroanatomist at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, who was not involved with the work.
They also feel that by enhancing social behaviors, a «dopamine - dominated striatum» personality type, as they call it, would have led to selection
for increased brain size and also language.
Not exact matches
Blakemore argues that a single gene mutation could in fact have been the cause of this
increase -
for in fact only one extra cell - division step would cause a doubling of
brain size.
But whatever the immediate reasons, the enlarged
brain could perform (as a consequence of its improved structure) all manner of operations bearing no direct relation to the original impetus
for its
increase in
size.
Page and his colleagues, who use animal models to understand how autism risk factors impact the developing
brain and to identify potential treatments
for the condition, have found that animals with mutations in the autism risk gene phosphatase and tensin homolog (Pten) mimic aspects of autism, including
increased brain size, social deficits and
increased repetitive behavior.
The pituitary gland at the base of the
brain — which releases a wide range of hormones, including some responsible
for regulating reproduction — showed the opposite effect, apparently
increasing in
size during pregnancy.
This article was originally published with the title «
Brain size has
increased for most of our existence, so why has it started to diminish
for the past few thousand years?»
These results collectively suggest that neural stem cells need MSI1 to generate enough neurons
for normal
brain size, but the presence of MSI1 also
increases the vulnerability of these cells to Zika infection, leading to the death of the population which ultimately results in microcephaly.
When the researchers looked at
brain size, they found that
for fighters who had
increasing levels of tau over time, there was a 7 percent decline in the volume of their thalamus, which is located in the center of the
brain and regulates sleep, consciousness, alertness, cognitive function and language while also sending sensory and movement signals to other portions of the
brain.
The new paper «Extinction Reverses Olfactory Fear Conditioned
Increases in Neuron Number and Glomerular
Size» highlights the results of a first of its kind study in which researchers reveal that the olfactory system in the
brain is biologically and structurally more sensitive to trauma cues than previously thought, and that it's possible
for fear behaviors associated with emotional learning to be reversed through exposure - based talk therapy.
He hinted that gestural theory could clear up another mystery about this period as well: why the stone tools of these early hominids show little evolution
for almost two million years, despite
increases in
brain size.
William H. Calvin's marvelous A
Brain for All Seasons argues that such cycles of cool, crash, and burn powered the pump for the enormous increase in brain size and complexity in human be
Brain for All Seasons argues that such cycles of cool, crash, and burn powered the pump
for the enormous
increase in
brain size and complexity in human be
brain size and complexity in human beings.
The
Brain of a four - month - old puppy has
increased up to 10 x larger than it was at birth and yet still retains the same number of cells, so what accounts
for this huge
increase in
size?
Size could just be a byproduct — reorganization of the brain might be the main thing, and the genes for reorganization might have had the side effect of increasing size at the same time, not being versatile enough to hold size constant while rearranging thin
Size could just be a byproduct — reorganization of the
brain might be the main thing, and the genes
for reorganization might have had the side effect of
increasing size at the same time, not being versatile enough to hold size constant while rearranging thin
size at the same time, not being versatile enough to hold
size constant while rearranging thin
size constant while rearranging things).
Yes,
brain size increase could have been
for intelligence in general.
William H. Calvin's marvelous A
Brain for All Seasons argues that such cycles of cool, crash, and burn powered the pump for the enormous increase in brain size and complexity in human be
Brain for All Seasons argues that such cycles of cool, crash, and burn powered the pump
for the enormous
increase in
brain size and complexity in human be
brain size and complexity in human beings.