Human evolution; savannah theory fading (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, August 15, 2022, 22:02 (829 days ago) @ David Turell

Brain expansion

DAVID: I have explained it!!! It is complex enough to handle all our needs into the future.

dhw: Thank you. I had forgotten. But I wonder why the ability to complexify was suddenly enhanced to the degree that expansion was no longer necessary. Did your God decide he’d had enough of performing all these operations on sleeping hominins and homos, and he’d leave all future “operations” to the cells themselves – apart perhaps from one final fling with the hippocampus?

A designer knows when His design is complete.

This new study shows this:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2333604-people-with-half-a-brain-removed-do-well-a...

"Adults who had one half of their brain removed in childhood to treat seizures can still recognise faces and words at a reasonably high level, suggesting that the organ can reorganise itself after major childhood surgery.

"It is typically understood that word recognition is generally processed in the left hemisphere of the brain and face recognition occurs in the right hemisphere.

***

"The team tested 40 individuals who underwent surgery in childhood to remove their left or right brain hemisphere in order to stop epileptic seizures.

"Of the participants, 16 still had their left cerebral hemisphere and 24 had their right hemisphere. Known as a hemispherectomy, the surgery is rare and used as a last resort to treat severe seizures that originate from one side of the brain. Research suggests the surgery is effective at stopping seizures and causes no significant loss of language function or IQ.

***

"The team thought people with only their right hemisphere would perform better at face recognition, while those with just their left hemisphere were expected to score more highly at word recognition.

Instead, the people who had their left or right hemisphere removed scored an average accuracy of 86 per cent across both tasks, compared with 96 per cent accuracy in the control group.

***

"The latest study suggests that the childhood brain is very plastic, says Daniel Mirman at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. “If only one hemisphere’s resources are available, then both behaviours will rely on that resource rather than splitting it between the two hemispheres,” he says.

“The fact that above-chance and broadly comparable performance for face and word recognition can be achieved following childhood hemispherectomy attests to the remarkable adaptability of the juvenile brain,” says David Wilkinson at the University of Kent in the UK."

Comment: Makes the point!!!