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2157 - Be
Thankful for your Brain? It took 1.5
million years of evolution. The size of
your brain does not mean that you have more neurons! How much energy does our brain power
take? It takes 25% of all the energy our
body consumes. Be thankful for your
brain and the calories that power it.
-
-
-
---------------------------------- 2157 - Be
Thankful for your Brain?
-
- The human brain is amazing? How did it get that way? It took 1.5 million years of
evolution. How did it get to be as good
as it gets. You may be surprised at the
answer.
-
- Why are our brains better? First guess, our human brains are bigger. Someone estimated the average human brain has
100 billion neurons. About the same
number as the number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. About the same number as the number of
planets in the Galaxy. If all brains are
made the same the more neurons you have, the bigger the brain, the smarter you are.
-
- But, that proportionality does not hold true:
-
- Cows and chimpanzees have the same size
brains.
-
--------------------- Human brains are ------------------- 2.5 to
3.3 pounds
-
----------------------
Elephant brains -------------------- 8.5 to 11
-
----------------------
Whale brains --------------------- 20
-
- The size of your brain does not mean that you
have more neurons!
-
- Gorillas have much bigger bodies but their
brains are 1/3 that of humans, about 30 billion neurons. Humans have 100 billion neurons. But, where did this number come from? Who actually counted the number of
neurons? Suzana Herculano-Houzel
actually did count them.
-
- She reduced a brain to soup using
detergents. The volume of the soup could
be accurately measured. Then a measured
drop could be put under a microscope.
The number of neurons were then accurately counted. Do the math and she got 86 billion neurons in
the average brain. 16 billion neurons
were in the cerebral cortex.
-
- Then there was the idea that all brains were
made the same. But, when counting
neurons was done on a rodent’s brain it was discovered to have larger
neurons. So for the same brain size it
has fewer actual neurons. A primate on the
other hand has much smaller neurons for the same mass.
-
- A primate needs only a 3 pound brain to hold
86 billion neurons. That with a body
size of 145 pounds.
-
- A rodent would have an 80 pound brain and a
body size of 89 tons to have 86 billion neurons. Obviously rodents and primates have different
brains.
-
- All primate brains are the same. It is just that humans have 16 billion
neurons in their cerebral cortex which we use to do studies on other animals
that they can’t do on us.
-
- How much energy does our brain power
take. It takes 25% of all the energy our
body consumes. We primates need 6
calories of energy per billion neurons per day.
Neurons are expensive to operate.
-
- For gorillas to support their 30 billion
neurons they must eat food 8 hours per day.
-
- For humans to support their 86 billion neuron
brains they would have to eat 9 hours per day of the same food. We don’t!
How do we get away with 3 small meals per day?
-
- ANSWER:
We cook our food.
-
- Cooking predigests the food. We get more energy out of every bite of the
same food. Our ancestors invented this
process 1,500,000 years ago. By cooking
food, and with 1.5 million years of evolution we got to have human brains. Now we do not have to eat 9 hours per day and
we can spend our time for other purposes, like writing this review.
-
- PROBLEM:
Now that we have large brains we are not using them to keep from getting
fat. We need to reverse the process and
start eating more raw food like gorillas.
-
- Cooking made us human.
-
- No other brain cooks its food.
-
- Happy Thanksgiving - be
thankful for your brains and the calories to power it.
--------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- See Review 2151 for a complete index of other Reviews
about the brain.
-
- November 6, 2018. 2078 1610
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Comments appreciated and Pass it on to
whomever is interested. ----
--- Some reviews are at: -------------- http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
-- email feedback, corrections, request for
copies or Index of all reviews
--- to:
------ jamesdetrick@comcast.net ------
“Jim Detrick” -----------
- https://plus.google.com/u/0/ -- www.facebook.com -- www.twitter.com
--------------------- Thursday, November 08, 2018 -------------------------
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