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Informationen zum Autor Stephen C. Cunnane , Ph.D., holds the Canada Research Chair in Brain Metabolism and Aging and is the Director of the Research Centre on Aging at Sherbrooke University Geriatric Institute. He sits on the editorial boards of iiuinerous journals, including Nutrition , British Journal of Nutrition and Journal of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine . Kathlyn M. Stewart , Ph.D. is a Research Scientist in Paleobiology and former Head of Paleobiology at the Canadian Museum of Nature. Specializing in environmental change and human adaptation, she has extensive field experience in Africa. Klappentext The evolution of the human brain and cognitive ability is one of the central themes of physical/biological anthropology. This book discusses the emergence of human cognition at a conceptual level, describing it as a process of long adaptive stasis interrupted by short periods of cognitive advance. These advances were not linear and directed, but were acquired indirectly as part of changing human behaviors, in other words through the process of exaptation (acquisition of a function for which it was not originally selected). Based on studies of the modem human brain, certain prerequisites were needed for the development of the early brain and associated cognitive advances. This book documents the energy and nutrient constraints of the modern brain, highlighting the significant role of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) in brain development and maintenance. Crawford provides further emphasis for the role of essential fatty acids, in particular DHA, in brain development, by discussing the evolution of the eye and neural systems.This is an ideal book for Graduate students, post docs, research scientists in Physical/Biological Anthropology, Human Biology, Archaeology, Nutrition, Cognitive Science, Neurosciences. It is also an excellent selection for a grad student discussion seminar. Zusammenfassung The evolution of the human brain and cognitive ability is one of the central themes of physical/biological anthropology. This book discusses the emergence of human cognition at a conceptual level, describing it as a process of long adaptive stasis interrupted by short periods of cognitive advance. Inhaltsverzeichnis Foreword: Evolution, Encephalization, Environment vii Phillip V. Tobias Introduction xiii Kathlyn M. Stewart and Stephen C. Cunnane Contributors xix Chapter 1 Macroevolutionary Patterns, Exaptation, and Emergence in the Evolution of the Human Brain and Cognition 1 Ian Tattersall Introduction 1 Natural Selection 1 Macroevolution 2 Patterns in Human Evolution 3 Symbolic Cognition 5 Exaptation and Emergence 8 Large Brains and Aquatic Resources 9 References 10 Chapter 2 Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Human Brain Evolution 13 Michael A. Crawford Introduction - Lipids and Evolution 13 The Evolution of Complex Life Forms 14 The Language of Lipids 15 DHA 17 Evolution of Homo sapiens 20 DHA and Neural Pathways? 22 A Comment on AA 24 The Third Phase of Earth's Life History - AA and Reproduction in Mammals 25 Darwin and the Conditions of Existence 26 Implications 27 Conclusion 28 Acknowledgments 28 Notes 28 References 28 Chapter 3 Human Brain Evolution: A Question of Solving Key Nutritional and Metabolic Constraints On Mammalian Brain Development 33 Stephen C. Cunnane Introduction 33 Brain Evolution in Hominins 35 Need for a New Paradigm 38 Brain Development 40 Energy Requirements of the Brain 41 Nutrients and Brain Function 44 Brain-Selective Nutrients 46 Critical Importance of Baby Fat in Human...
