Adolescence is a key stage that distinguishes us from chimpanzees

the key that distinguishes human mental abilities from those of chimpanzees is in adolescence. According to a professor at the University of Teruel Hector Manrique In a paper just published in the scientific journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, in humans Brain size stops growing at age sevenas occurs in other closely related primates, but unlike them, throughout adolescence the human brain improves communication between its different parts due to the development of “white matter”, which strengthens connections. This process, absent in other primates, progresses in humans up to 25 years of age and constitutes their main differential element in terms of mental abilities.

Manrique, teacher of pedagogy and psychology in Teruel, he signs his paper along with two other neuroscience experts, paleoanthropologist Michael Walker from the University of Murcia and Dwight Reed, professor University of California in Los Angeles (USA). These researchers note that long-term improvements in brain capacity during adolescence strengthen “working memory,” a key element in determining intelligence, by improving the management of learned information. This brain tool allows you to e.g. resort to mnemonics

to consolidate knowledge – the abbreviation “chon” to remember Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen, the most common elements in living things.

Hector Manrique adds that his thesis shows that “traditional measurements of cranial volume are not reliable for determining the cognitive abilities of human ancestors.” “From the point of view of adaptation to the environment,” he argues, “it was not the increase in the capacity to store information that predominated, but rather the manage it more efficiently.”

long-term improvement in communication in addition, memory in men and women is a distinguishing element of their brains compared to the brains of other close relatives at the evolutionary level. “Other primates, including chimpanzees, do not have this adolescence, and the brain is fully mature by the time they reach reproductive age, preventing further development of the complexity of control over content stored in memory that occurs in human children from late childhood to adulthood.” life.”

Hand axes, joke

The Teruel researcher also just published another paper on the evolution of the human brain, related to archeology, in the international journal Physics of Life Reviews. In his opinion, for more than a million years, prehistoric bifaces or hand axes were nothing more than an “anecdotal” phenomenon that arose as a result of isolated and casual work of people which had no continuity.

Post shared by Michael Walker and Karl Friston, Professor University College London

and one of the most prestigious neuroscientists of his time for his explanation of neuronal processes based on the “free energy principle,” which holds that all organisms minimize the discrepancy between their representation of their environment and the reality they perceive through it. feelings. This is about continuing education which makes it possible to reduce the individual’s uncertainty and improve his adaptation.

Hector Manrique considers it unlikely that hand axes were passed down continuously for more than a million years (the first ones date back to 1.7 million years ago) and did not become widespread. In his opinion, even 600,000 years ago this primitive tool became commonplace – it appears in excavations “regularly” – It was simply “a systemic failure, an anomaly in the functioning of the brains of individual individuals.” isolated,” which had no further significance.

He explains that thanks to the mental abilities of people who lived 1.7 million years ago, I’m not smart enough to remember the work concrete – making bifaces – nor passing it on to their peers, and they did not have the mental resources to learn this stone cutting technique.

According to Manrique’s calculations It is “almost impossible” that the technological tradition of making stone axes could be preserved. for one million years after 40,000 generations. The scientific paper applies the “free energy principle,” which states that species increase their chances of survival if they keep behavioral changes to a minimum. This condition will hinder the introduction of this new technology into human heritage.

The researcher notes that “it is unclear what transmission mechanismThe “hand ax production technique” could be preserved in the corresponding space-time dimensions. The history of the biface began 1.7 million years ago in South Africa and spread throughout Africa, Asia and Europe until 300,000 years ago or even later. Manrique, this long space-time path cannot correspond to a continuous “cultural tradition” and represents its own alternative.

He claims that just over half a million years ago changing the human brain allowed him to teach and learnwhich led to the transfer of biface production techniques and the generalization of this tool, marking the beginning of human technology.