The Larger Brains of Humans Come With a Tragic Cost, Study Finds

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It comes with a drawback: a significant increase in the risk of brain degradation.

Scientists at Heinrich Heine University, led by neuroscientist Sam Vickery, have discovered that the additional brain capacity humans have developed since diverging from our closest ancestors around 6 million years ago has left our gray matter more susceptible to the negative effects of aging.

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This has led to a significant increase in our species' susceptibility to age-related brain deterioration.

The growth expansion of the prefrontal cortex, which played a significant role in the cognitive evolution of primates, unfortunately comes at the cost of significant reductions in gray matter in humans as they age.

In contrast to how human brains have expanded to handle higher brain functions, areas of the chimpanzee brain that are relatively larger than those of baboons and macaques are generally more involved in processing sensory information and controlling movement.

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The parts of our brain that mature last as we develop are also the first to show the effects of aging. This area of the brain tends to have fewer neurons than other parts, making them more susceptible to cell damage, the researchers speculate.

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Vickery and the team are concerned that the majority of the chimpanzee MRI samples they used were female, which may have biased their results. Therefore, further research is required to confirm their findings using a balanced ratio of males and females in all compared species.

Maintaining our brain's incredible abilities requires us to invest more time and effort into taking care of it if we want our advanced thinking abilities to last longer.

This study was published in Science Advances .