According to Brazilian researchers Suzana Herculano-Houzel and Karina Fonseca-Azevedo, as per the results of their study conducted, there does seem to be a connection in the consumption of cooked food and evolution of larger human brains. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the results pointed to the fact that there is a direct connection between consuming cooked food which produced more energy leading to growth in the size of the human brain.
A comparison of the frontal lobes (colored) in human and several non-human primate species. The evolutionary relationships among the species are indicated by the connecting lines.
The researchers justified the results by saying that cooking food is similar to digestion of food as disintegration takes place. Eating raw food did not use up as much energy as eating cooked food did and hence learning the art of cooking led to the more exploration and survey which augmented the growth of the size of the human brain as they were more involved in a number of related activities.
They established this theory by evidences that demonstrated the amount of energy needed to stimulate their brains which they estimated by the number of neural cells. This amount was compared to the types of food consumed and the amount of each type of food. The process of calculation included maintaining an account of the neurons in the brains of a variety of species of primates and then figured out the time taken by them to consume a particular diet which helped them to maintain their brain sizes. This led to highly improbable results that included nine and a half hours of eating time for humans if they ate uncooked food and gorillas would need almost 8.8hrs of eating time. They also found a link to the number of neurons and the size of the brain and which was also related to the calories consumed.
Such improbable eating times was impossible to maintain to ensure larger brain size and thus an easy way out of this was to consume cooked food which gave humans more time for other activities instead of just eating.
Via – MedicalXpress.com
