The Brain. Is It Really Special?

Humans are amazing creatures. Our brain uses up to 25% of all the energy our body needs every day. In a relatively short period of evolution, its size has significantly increased, allowing us to leave our ancestors, the ape-like primates,... behind. So, can we call the human brain special? Not really. Suzana Herculano-Houzel argues that the size of our brain is not so important. What matters is only the cortex and the number of neurons. All this happened thanks to our ancestors' invention of a relatively efficient way to obtain calories: cooking food. Consuming a larger amount of calories in a short period of time allowed our brain to acquire a greater number of neurons in still quite a small cortex, which is responsible for pattern recognition, reasoning, and technology development. This is an original perspective on how there was nothing particularly special about the process of becoming human.

Author: Сюзанна Херкулано-Хузел

Printhouse: AST

Series: Mysteries of the Brain

Age restrictions: 16+

Year of publication: 2019

ISBN: 9785171135348

Number of pages: 288

Size: 216x143x18 mm

Cover type: hard

Weight: 350 g

ID: 1012519

Humans are amazing creatures. Our brain uses up to 25% of all the energy our body needs every day. In a relatively short period of evolution, its size has significantly increased, allowing us to leave our ancestors, the ape-like primates, behind. So, can we call the human brain special? Not really. Suzana Herculano-Houzel argues that the size of our brain is not so important. What matters is only the cortex and the number of neurons. All this happened thanks to our ancestors' invention of a relatively efficient way to obtain calories: cooking food. Consuming a larger amount of calories in a short period of time allowed our brain to acquire a greater number of neurons in still quite a small cortex, which is responsible for pattern recognition, reasoning, and technology development. This is an original perspective on how there was nothing particularly special about the process of becoming human.

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Expected delivery time – up to 2 weeks

€ 14.69

Sold out

Expected delivery time – up to 2 weeks

€ 14.69

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