Pub Date : 2021-03-08DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780199546756.003.0005
S. Healy
Not least because humans are inveterate inventors, innovation is considered to be a reason that other animals have big brains. The Innovative Brain Hypothesis really came into being when Lefebvre et al. suggested that innovation could be a way to assess cognitive abilities in wild animals, which tend not to be amenable to cognitive testing in the traditional, laboratory context. The collection of a data set of foraging innovations in birds (and a similar data set later collected for primates) has provided opportunities to test the main hypothesis in this chapter. Innovations were later divided into technical and non-technical innovations, with the former perhaps leading to more correlations with brain size than the latter. I conclude that this is a very appealing hypothesis but that the evidence is not especially persuasive.
{"title":"The Innovative Brain","authors":"S. Healy","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780199546756.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780199546756.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Not least because humans are inveterate inventors, innovation is considered to be a reason that other animals have big brains. The Innovative Brain Hypothesis really came into being when Lefebvre et al. suggested that innovation could be a way to assess cognitive abilities in wild animals, which tend not to be amenable to cognitive testing in the traditional, laboratory context. The collection of a data set of foraging innovations in birds (and a similar data set later collected for primates) has provided opportunities to test the main hypothesis in this chapter. Innovations were later divided into technical and non-technical innovations, with the former perhaps leading to more correlations with brain size than the latter. I conclude that this is a very appealing hypothesis but that the evidence is not especially persuasive.","PeriodicalId":246976,"journal":{"name":"Adaptation and the Brain","volume":"2014 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121476924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-08DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780199546756.003.0008
S. Healy
The first discussion of a relationship between sociality and intelligence came in the middle of the twentieth century, especially by Humphrey who suggested that living socially demanded intellectual abilities above and beyond those required by an animal’s ecology. This led to the Social Intelligence Hypothesis, and then the Machiavellian Intelligence Hypothesis, both proposing that sociality was the main driver of the superior intellect of primates, especially humans. Two key challenges for this hypothesis are that sociality is difficult to quantify and cognition is not well tested by problem solving. More importantly, as data from more species have been examined, the analyses increasingly fail to show that sociality explains variation in brain size, even in primates. I conclude that appealing as this hypothesis is, it does not do a very compelling job of explaining variation in brain size.
{"title":"The Social Brain","authors":"S. Healy","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780199546756.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780199546756.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"The first discussion of a relationship between sociality and intelligence came in the middle of the twentieth century, especially by Humphrey who suggested that living socially demanded intellectual abilities above and beyond those required by an animal’s ecology. This led to the Social Intelligence Hypothesis, and then the Machiavellian Intelligence Hypothesis, both proposing that sociality was the main driver of the superior intellect of primates, especially humans. Two key challenges for this hypothesis are that sociality is difficult to quantify and cognition is not well tested by problem solving. More importantly, as data from more species have been examined, the analyses increasingly fail to show that sociality explains variation in brain size, even in primates. I conclude that appealing as this hypothesis is, it does not do a very compelling job of explaining variation in brain size.","PeriodicalId":246976,"journal":{"name":"Adaptation and the Brain","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130591019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-03-08DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780199546756.003.0007
S. Healy
Morphological and behavioural differences between the sexes are ubiquitous across the animal kingdom. There is also good evidence for differences in some brain regions between males and females, in humans, some rodents, and many songbirds. I look at the data for sex differences in cognition, of which there are some that show differences in spatial cognition and in hippocampal structure, at least some of which may be explained by variation in hormone levels. The thesis of The Mating Mind by Geoffrey Miller considerably increased interest in using sexual selection to explain variation in brain size. From female mate choice, male–male competition, sperm competition, mating strategy, to parental care, there are some data that appear to support selection acting on one species rather than the other in sexually a selected manner but I conclude that the data are not generally supportive of the Sexual Brain Hypothesis.
{"title":"The Sexual Brain","authors":"S. Healy","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780199546756.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780199546756.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"Morphological and behavioural differences between the sexes are ubiquitous across the animal kingdom. There is also good evidence for differences in some brain regions between males and females, in humans, some rodents, and many songbirds. I look at the data for sex differences in cognition, of which there are some that show differences in spatial cognition and in hippocampal structure, at least some of which may be explained by variation in hormone levels. The thesis of The Mating Mind by Geoffrey Miller considerably increased interest in using sexual selection to explain variation in brain size. From female mate choice, male–male competition, sperm competition, mating strategy, to parental care, there are some data that appear to support selection acting on one species rather than the other in sexually a selected manner but I conclude that the data are not generally supportive of the Sexual Brain Hypothesis.","PeriodicalId":246976,"journal":{"name":"Adaptation and the Brain","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130671236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1900-01-01DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780199546756.003.0009
S. Healy
In this chapter, I conclude that ecology has been shown to explain variation in the size of brain regions in multiple species, which is not the case for any of the other hypotheses. I go on to suggest the steps that need to be taken to collect the requisite data: collecting data on size of brain regions with identifiable function, choosing the appropriate cognitive test and collecting data from appropriate species, better quantification of ecological factors along with data collected from individuals that differ in age, sex, and geographical location, and demonstration that better cognition confers fitness benefits. Each of these is in both principle and practice feasible, if challenging to assemble for one hypothesis/taxonomic group. With these data, we may eventually be able to shed light on what has caused human brains to become relatively large.
{"title":"Concluding Remarks","authors":"S. Healy","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780199546756.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199546756.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, I conclude that ecology has been shown to explain variation in the size of brain regions in multiple species, which is not the case for any of the other hypotheses. I go on to suggest the steps that need to be taken to collect the requisite data: collecting data on size of brain regions with identifiable function, choosing the appropriate cognitive test and collecting data from appropriate species, better quantification of ecological factors along with data collected from individuals that differ in age, sex, and geographical location, and demonstration that better cognition confers fitness benefits. Each of these is in both principle and practice feasible, if challenging to assemble for one hypothesis/taxonomic group. With these data, we may eventually be able to shed light on what has caused human brains to become relatively large.","PeriodicalId":246976,"journal":{"name":"Adaptation and the Brain","volume":"77 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127404144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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