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Asked by christiancox to Fiona, Joanna, William on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
Question: What is so special about our brains which caused us to evolve the most successfully?
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William Davies answered on 24 Jun 2010:
the main thing that differs between our brains and those of our closest cousins, the great apes, is the size of the frontal cortex – the bit of the brain above your eyes. This bit of the brain is responsible for many of the functions that make us uniquely human such as planning ahead, understanding what other people are thinking and inhibiting and changing our behaviour if things aren’t going as planned
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Fiona Randall answered on 24 Jun 2010:
Just over time the brain got more and more complex compared to our ancestors, probably just because of survival pressures. But it is crazy to think we were once like other animals and now we ave such a big technological society isn’t it? I don’t think anyone really knows but we are the only animal that looks in the mirror and sees ourselves rather than another animal. This means we are self-aware and maybe with that come our complex reasoning and emotional skills etc.
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Joanna Brooks answered on 24 Jun 2010:
Hello again! Modern humans are thought to have evolved tens of thousands of years ago after breaking away from chimpanzees and gorillas millions of years before that.
The human brain has evolved because humans needed to find better ways to hunt – by designing and making better tools for example – and needed to make better shelters for their families to protect them from things like harsh weather conditions and other predators.
The most special thing about the human brain is that we developed language – our language system is unique. Although other species like birds can communicate with one another their language systems are far more basic. Language has allowed us to communicate very well with one another and we have become even more intelligent because of this.
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