brain

The large and productive brain of modern humans is the result of a long evolution, and one of its key moments is the beginning of eating fruits, the study shows, the results of which were published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

According to American researchers, primates, realizing that fruit can be eaten, took a big step forward in terms of brain development. "Because of this, the volume of the brain has increased incredibly," says Alex Decazien, a graduate student in the Department of Biological Anthropology at New York University and co-author of the study. The researchers came to such conclusions after studying more than 140 species of primates.

They found that species that eat mostly fruits have about 25% larger brains than those that eat mostly leaves. This casts doubt on the theory put forward in the mid-1990s that social relationships, complex in the case of primates, contributed to the increase in brain size. Important social life, survival and reproduction requires a good understanding of the environment and other primates, all of which develop the brain. Alex Decazien does not deny this, although the researchers did not find any evidence of an association between brain size and the complexity of social relationships in the primates studied.