水果促進(jìn)大腦的進(jìn)化:發(fā)育得更大

由雕龍文庫(kù) 分享時(shí)間：2024-04-03 19:03:20 收藏本文

Humans likely developed large and powerful brains, researchers said Monday, with the help of what is today the simplest of snacks: fruit. Eating fruit was a key step up from the most basic of foodstuffs, such as leaves, and provided the energy needed to grow bulkier brains, the scientists argued.

研究人員于周一表示：有了當(dāng)今時(shí)代最簡(jiǎn)單零食--水果的幫助，人類有可能發(fā)育出更大、更強(qiáng)的大腦。科學(xué)家說，吃水果是從吃最基本的食物（如葉子）中邁出的重要一步，并且還提供了發(fā)育大腦所需的能量。

"That's how we got these crazy huge brains," said the study's corresponding author Alex Decasien, a researcher at New York University. "We have blown up the quality of our food that we are eating." The study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution looked at the staple foods of over 140 species of primates, and assumed their diets haven't changed much over the course of recent evolution.

"因此我們的大腦才如此瘋狂的巨大，"紐約大學(xué)的研究員兼本研究的通訊作者Alex Decasien說道。"我們已經(jīng)放大了所吃食物的質(zhì)量。"該研究刊登在《自然生態(tài)與進(jìn)化》期刊上，研究了140多種靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物的主食，并假設(shè)在近期的進(jìn)化過程中，它們的飲食變化不大。

According to the research, the animals which feast on fruit have brains that are about 25 percent bigger than those filling their bellies primarily with leaves. The results call into question the theory that has prevailed since the mid-1990s, which says bigger brains developed out of the need to survive and reproduce in complex social groups.

研究表明：吃水果的動(dòng)物的大腦要比主要以吃葉子為生的動(dòng)物大25%左右。20世紀(jì)90年代中期開始盛行這樣一種理論：在復(fù)雜的社會(huì)群體中，出于生存和繁殖的需要，更大的大腦才得以形成，該研究結(jié)果則質(zhì)疑了這一理論。

Decasien said the challenges of living in a group could be part of getting smarter, but found no link between the complexity of primates' social lives and the size of their grey matter. What did correlate strongly with brain size was eating fruit. Foods such as fruit contain more energy than basic sources like leaves, thus creating the additional fuel needed to evolve a bigger brain.

Decasien說群體生活的挑戰(zhàn)可能會(huì)使靈長(zhǎng)動(dòng)物更聰明，但卻與它們社會(huì)生活的復(fù)雜性以及大腦灰質(zhì)大小毫無關(guān)系。與大腦大小相關(guān)的是吃水果。水果等食物含有的能量多于樹葉等基本食物，因此能額外促進(jìn)大腦進(jìn)化得更大。

At the same time, remembering which plants produce fruit, where they are, and how to break them open could also help a primate grow a bigger brain. A larger brain also needs more fuel to keep it running. "We've heard that fact saying is two percent of our body weight, but it takes up 25 percent of our energy," Decasien said.

同時(shí)，記住哪種植物長(zhǎng)水果、位置在哪、如何打開這些水果也可能幫助靈長(zhǎng)動(dòng)物發(fā)育更大的大腦。更大的大腦也需要更多的燃料才能運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)。"我們已聽說過這樣的事實(shí)：大腦的重量只有我們體重的2%，但其需要的能量卻達(dá)25%，"Decasien說道。

"It's a crazy expensive organ." While the study challenges some of the orthodoxy of how our brains evolved, the research is likely to continue. "I feel confident that their study will refocus and reinvigorate research seeking to explain cognitive complexity in primates and other mammals," wrote Chris Venditti, a researcher at the University of Reading in Britain in a comment on the study, also published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. "But many questions remain," he added.

"這是個(gè)瘋狂的、高價(jià)的器官。"雖然研究質(zhì)疑了一些正統(tǒng)觀念，比如我們的大腦是如何進(jìn)化的，但很有可能會(huì)繼續(xù)開展下去。"我相信他們的研究將重新聚焦、重振那些試圖解釋靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物和其它哺乳動(dòng)物認(rèn)知復(fù)雜性的研究，"英國(guó)雷丁大學(xué)的研究員克里斯·文迪蒂在評(píng)論該研究時(shí)寫道，該評(píng)論也發(fā)表在《自然生態(tài)和進(jìn)化》期刊上。"但還有很多問題有待研究，"他補(bǔ)充說。