friday, february 02, 2007
I like braaains
Last year I took a biology class titled Evolutionary Medicine, where we discussed human diseases and treatments in terms of our “environments of evolutionary adaptedness” (caveman days) and how they relate to modern environments (walmart and indoor toilet days). So I like that kind of thing now, and this quarter in Memory: A Bridge Between Neuroscience and the Humanities, we’re discussing evolutionary hypotheses about schizophrenia. There are some interesting bits about brains in general in this review article:
…in the first evolutionary step some 5-6 million years ago a more complex inter- and intrahemispheric connectivity emerged…These brain circuits evolved due to increasing demands of the social environment of early hominids and had been crucial for increasing social cognitive capacities. In a second more recent evolutionary step 150,000 years ago, some unknown genetic mutation may have enhanced the vulnerability of these connections, which could be associated with the evolution of metacognition and ‘theory of mind’. Thus, according to Burns, schizophrenia may be seen as a trade-off of the evolution of the human ‘social brain’.
Many cognitive, emotional, and behavioural capacities ‘hard-wired’ in the human brain evolved as adaptations to our social environment. This includes the capacities, among others, (1) to infer what others think, intend, pretend and desire, referred to as having a ‘theory of mind’, (2) to ‘read’ signals of con-specifics such as facial expressions of emotions, (3) to travel mentally in time back and forth, and, (4) language.
These aren’t new ideas, but it’s neat to learn about how my brain evolved, and how craziness in a few people is related to saneness in others.
The Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder genetics blog — what a nice and direct title — has some good further reading on this stuff, but it also has an odd affinity for animations and requires registration for comments (and my requested registration email never arrived).
comments (1)
Did you hear about this book? Survival of the Sickest?
– Jeff on 3/5/2007 20:36:45
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