The Human Neocortex Isn’t as Special as We Thought
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- Опубліковано 21 лип 2021
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For a long time, scientists considered the neocortex the brainiest part of the human brain - an obvious candidate for the thing that makes us unique. But in some ways, it’s not that different from other mammals’ brains. So researchers have started looking at other places to figure out what makes us distinctly human.
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No.
What was the girl leaning on at around 1:20? I can't figure it out and its bugging me.
@@infiniteadam7352 It's stock footage but it's probably just representing our language skills since that's what Hank was talking about.
@@fireriffs Nope, maybe US don't have those yet; but it's an E-Trotinette (I don't know how say Trotinette in another word than French)
Can I has a cookie? 🍪
This is my Neocortex. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Neocortex is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.
Lol neocortex oath
Left shoulder, HUUUH!
Right shoulder, HUUUH!
lol. Perfect!!!
Adorable. 🧠
Lol, I just got done watching fmj
Personally I find in hard to believe that it would boil down to one thing. No one instrument makes an orchestra.
Furthering your analogy I suppose they’re arguing whether the strings or the brass play the most important bit in creating the symphony
@@thomas.02 Exactly.
But the quest isn't what makes what in particular. This was abandoned many years ago in the favor of the "orchestra" theories. The quest is to find out what makes what different and how.
@@adriancioroianu1704 Na, it sounds very much like;
It's not the old thing, It's the new thing
@@lucidmoses Because its not, scientific understanding evolves. To say "its complicated" doesn't solve anything. In fact this is the main reason neuroscience is so new compared to other sciences. People said its too complicated and very few bothered and naturally they were mainly wrong anyway.
Just realised the Powerpuff Girls' Ms Bellum's name is actually a pun. Sarah Bellum = Cerebellum. She's literally the brain of Townsville.
This took me over 20 years to work out...
I got it the first time I heard it 20 years ago
@@goldenboi7685 me too.
It’s an old joke. It was also in an Atari ST game in the 1980s called Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters. Which had a character called Sarah Bellum.
damn, i just realised it. but i watched ppg in english as a kid and i didn't speak it, so i'll blame it on that
"Picture a brain in your brain ... your mind's eye is probably showing you..."
Me, aphantic: Nuh-uh.
"your mind's eye is probably showing you"
"is probably"
*"probably"*
@@zfnQRZJT the wording doesn't change the validity of their comment lol what are you on about 😂😂
"she probably didn't do the dishes huh?"
"nuh-uh she definitely did, I saw her doing it"
@@ladiz.washroom I would argue that is different. There is only one person who that "probably" is talking about, so it's more like if you reran the universe a bunch of times most of them would have her (EDIT) not doing it (assuming nondeterminism btw).
However, in this video the word "probably" can be more accurately thought of as a statement about the whole population, i.e. most of the people he refers to as "you" will have visualized x thing.
Basically, that allows for some exceptions where people didn't think of the next thing.
Saying "nuh uh" to this particular instance of "probably" is like saying that most people did *not* visualize what he said they would have.
Who needs a minds eye, when you have the chameleon skin of your computer to show you things you couldnt even imagine beforehand?
I thought aphantic had something to do with rocks.
The Human Neocortex Isn’t as Special as IT Thought.
Clever
This hits close to home
What about an episode about Brain size vs neuronal density?
I hope they do. It's a fascinating thing. Much like how some apes and birds despite their different sizes have similar levels of intelligence. And then there's those talking fish.
@@dissonanceparadiddle can it make up it's mind or fool you?
@@badoem5353 If you are asking if animals have a theory of mind, which is the essential concept needed to fool someone, then the answer is yes. Animals also can and do in fact fool other animals including humans.
I'm assuming when you say "make up it's mind" you are talking about decision making, which most higher animal can do.
I find it a bit ironic, that you couldn't even use proper grammar (to the point, where I am unsure whether or not I interpreted your sentence correctly), when questioning the intelligence of other animals...
@@creativedesignation7880 @Creative Designation I'm not questioning animal's intelligent wtf
Als je wilt discussiëren in mijn eigen taal ga je gang....
Dutch would be harder wouldn't it?
Birds are indeed a good example of intelligence, my point was if it can it probably just lacks a medium to explain it as clearly for humans to understand. It's just a lack of medium to communicate but even dogs can talk when tought.
If you don't know something you're not dumb
From what i've read and heard, the human brain is a scaled up primate brain.
As brain get bigger, they get more neurons, and we have about thrice as much neurons as primates that have brains thrice as small as ours.
If you take the Elephant, with it's brain three to four times bigger than our own, you find that they have about three times the number of neurons we have.
As far as why we exhibit more complex behavior, it might be because we have the most cortical neurons out of any species, and the neocortex is know to be in charge of higher brain functions.
We were smart like primates who are pretty good, our brains got three times bigger, we got very smart.
It makes a lot of sense to me that we just have big brains. evolution likes simple solutions.
And this explain our explosive growth of intelligence.
Humans: Ah yes, our neocortex. THIS, this is what makes humans so great and unique!!
**Humans discover that the neocortex isn't special at all**
Ah yes, the crebellum. So filled with neurons. THIS, this is what makes us humans so great and unique!!
What made humans decide that? Neocortex or cerebellum?..
Next they're going to say cerebellum shape is important 5 years later or something
It will be great when humans realize that we are just an animal with a bigger brain and nothing more. We don't have some magic part of our brain that no other animal couldn't develop
@@bobthegoat7090 I do not doubt that no one claims it cannot be evolved in any other specie; but so far, it has not been observed, so it seems to either be a unique feature or an atypical combination of very typical features. Either way, it makes us want to know what exactly gives us this prized advantage.
I would liken this neocortex-cerebellum co-evolution to today's development of machine learning. Neocortex is like the CPUs and GPUs and RAM needed to learn and execute, while cerebellum is like the parametric storage and interpretation units. On one hand, the more sophisticated a ML model grows, the more storage is needed to store the parameters and better hardware needed to interpret (retrieve and execute) the model on demand. All those ML models are just man-made muscle memories. On the other, the more and better models/interpreters a machine has, the more CPUs-GPUs-RAM can be freed up to process unpredicted events, and build future models.
That's like asking what the most important part of a car engine is...
How do we account for cases where people live without their cerebellum? It's exceedingly rare, but the fact that the brain can adapt so well without a cerebellum might indicate that it isn't what sets the human brain apart... just a thought
Human brain is weird as it is has quite a bit of redundancy built into it, which from an evolutionary standpoint makes sense, much of our early forms of combat involved blunt force trauma to the head, and for the past couple thousand years we have been exposing ourselves to chemical induced brain damage from everything from drugs to industry. So I'm thinking that those people who were born without their cerebellum spent their early years when they had the best neuroplasticity training what brain they did have to function in the world.
as far as i know the different areas of the brain is specified towards the tasks we have discovered and the locations is determed by our genetics however it takes a long time for the brain to learn (starting as a infant)
this does not mean the rest of the brain is unable to store these kind of information. people who get brain injury usually gain lost functionallity after training (suggesting it is now stored elsewere)
and no we are not different from other animals we were just lucky enought to have fingers.
Ppl who live with damage to those areas can’t tell time. No past, future… only meaningless present.
There’s a book by a guy… Later in the day when the details pop in my head I’ll tell you the authors name and book title. He proposes this brain development that allows time telling is the thing that makes us human, and backs up claims with many studies. I think the author is a neuroscientist.
@@-astrangerontheinternet6687 I might have this to a much lesser degree because I've always struggled with time management. Time is very fluid in my mind and I struggle with rigid, down-to-the minute schedules. I live in the present for the most part but can do some planning with a lot of effort when I have a very good reason to do so. I blend right in for the most part - until you hire me for some 9 to 5 office job.
@@paulawolanski3237 are you dyslexic? I struggle with the whole concept of time and joke that I’ll live forever!
Every time humans think they've found what makes them so special, they are inevitably proven wrong. The human cerebellum is not so special either, I am sure. Humans are not special. We are unique just like every species is unique, that is all. We think about things too hard, sure, but like, what's so special about a monkey with anxiety?
It's time we understand ourselves as the human animal, a part of our ecosystem.
Humans are not special in the bigger picture, but when comparing their brains with other species they clearly are unique. This comment doesn't apply well in this video.
Humans have done things others have not, I will give folks that.
But, on the other hand? You're correct. We dog sit. And I have seen dogs with different personalities before. But. Personalities, traumas, like. Dogs aren't people. And yet? They can be as varried and have PTSD or anxiety just like humans.
It can be weird to acknolwedge both differences and similarities. But, like. Both can be true!
Reject humanity, become monke. I am doing bear and lizard crawls all the time and now I am strong like a caveman.
Humans are special. Any ideology that says
otherwise cheapens all of us.
@@user-iz8np3vv4i you could also say that octopus are special. They are these squishy, 8 armed ocean creatures that can solve problems, use each of their strong, flexible, independently controlled arms like hands, and communicate by voluntarily changing color. Yup, they can control pigment levels and types in their skin with the power of their minds - all to convey a message to their fellow octopus. I want to see you do that.
"We need to look at the whole brain." Yes! So many psychologists will be like "The brain is the most complicated structure in the universe ... but it's fine because we can divide it into smaller pieces and just study those in isolation." And then they act surprised that their analysis is incomplete if not flat-out incorrect.
Hi think i've seen you browse somewhere else too haha. It is more important to go fishing... than going to sci-cologists.
Like taking people and seeing them outside of a healthy environment... try and force them to adapt to a sick garden.
What is that Krisna Murto saing...
lets not be well adapted to a sick society...
that's not health.
Now I want to know the comparative sizes of cetaceans and corvid cerebellums.
Me too, I’m curious how complex crow speech might be, crows will teach their grandchildren to fear specific people, there has to be some form of complex communication in order to give descriptions of someone the other creature has never seen.
and don't forget octopusses, those squirmily bastards had no business being that smart, and 1/3 of their neurons are actually on the limbs
Human neocortex : I'm trying my best. Rude.
Keep up the work! It's useful.
I said it before, but:
I would love to see an episode about cerebellar ataxia, my father had a case of pneumonia that migrated to his cerebellum, causing severe damage leading to cerebellar ataxia.
I have managed to find out through hours upon hours of searching that it probably was an exceedingly rare complication of a Mycoplasma Pneumoniae infection, and according to the doctor that diagnosed him, my father was the second case ever in the Netherlands.
That's both sad and fascinating.
@@sophierobinson2738 it is both, rehabilitation was difficult for him, he had to relearn to do almost every basic movement you can think of, including swallowing.
By my estimation he spent around 3 years in hospital, part of it was the rehabilitation, of course, another, very big, part was that he got Bipolar disorder at the same time, possibly triggered due to the stress, or possibly due to the brain damage itself.
He had Electro Convulsive Therapy, and he's now on Lithium and Mirtazapine, and he's happy now, he still can't walk without support, nor can he really do anything that requires fine movements, but he got through the whole mess.
I can't remember too much of the time, since it happened shortly after my 4th birthday, and my mother protected me and my sisters from seeing our father in both his mania and depressive states as much as she could. He also doesn't remember much of it, both as a side effect of the ECT and because he was catatonic for much of it, and I don't think people suffering from catatonia make many memories, but I'm unsure.
I didn't realise my father struggled with bipolar disorder until I had my own struggles with depression, 10 years after his began.
Neat video! Thanks for uploading!
When you refer to "size" with regard to brain regions, what are you referring to: mass, volume, number of neurons, or cell density?
As a cognitive scientist I find this video very misleading.
I know there is a huge amount of information this video has to gloss over, but simplifying general info and exaggerating singular papers /research areas at the same time isn't good practice.
HI! I would like to ask what do you think about human conscience and what it is that we DO have as humans and animals don't, that allows us to be capable of having this intricate language and thinking skills.
Do you happen to have any information on the mechanism that causes severe cognitive decline and executive dysfunction in severe cases of major depression?
@@mc_va Consciousness simply isn't understood. However, in my opinion it's mainly an illusion.
Concerning language the greatest difference is our ability for abstraction of place and time. After that I believe it's mainly just a little bit more processing power (bigger and more specialized brain regions).
Language and the abstraction it's built on are the foundation for our complex thinking (which actually is far less complex than we'd like to believe). With it come culture (learning over time and individuals) and cooperation.
But keep in mind how complexity works. An ant colony seems very complex, as many individuals use statistical heuristics to achieve greater things.
@@gregorymalchuk272 depression sadly is out of the scope of my studies. I also haven't heard of the processes you mentioned being associated with depression, but it sounds rather interesting, so if you have any further reading I'd appreciate it.
@@gregorymalchuk272 I don't know all that much about it from an academic standpoint, but I do experience it personally. I've been diagnosed with a number of disorders (around 10 I think), but the relevant ones would be Dissociative Identity Disorder (definitely affecting executive function), and Bipolar II with melancholic depressive episodes. When the depressive episodes happen I definitely notice a huge downswing in executive function, like my body feels heavier than normal, not as if gravity is stronger but more like my joints and muscles have resistance to them. I feel slow and sluggish, like wading through sand, and it feels like the world around me is moving faster through time than I am.
What region of the brain is responsible for uniquely human stupidity?
I'd say the ''bias'' part
but my opinion might have some degree of external influence
Probably the whole thing-in some cases....
It's a processor, a receiver and a transmitter. It sets up the waves that inform the electrical field that surrounds your nervous system. That field is nested inside a planet sized electromagnet. We're very close to understanding what consciousness is, just by observing the direction of our own technologies. We ourselves will bioengineer networking, if we haven't already, and we already have the concept of an 'Internet-of-things'. As we look to nature to help us cross disciplines it will become harder to deny that it took someones' matured singularity to set up our species, if not all species that think and feel.
Searching the brain for the essence of spirit is like expecting the man on TV to be inside the television.
I never thought about speech as a fine-motor skill before... Makes sense though. There are a lot of little parts that need to move just right or the sound is wrong. It makes speech difficulties make more sense, too.
"functions we think of as characteristically human, like making plans, speaking and understanding language"
The fact the we think of them as characteristic for humans, when they are in fact not, shows that we can't be all that smart to begin with.
We just like to think we are smart and there is largely no one to tell us otherwise, even when we observe other animals acting in smart ways, we tend to downplay what they do.
Nah
It's a valid point.
Orca, for example, display those characteristics of self awareness and social communication that we attribute to ourselves, but they simply haven't had any reason to fabricate tools, thus hand like appendages haven't evolved out of flippers either. Teaching hunting to their young seems most plausible need to have driven their language development, similar to how tool fabrication and hunting probably did for us. Some put them at roughly the mental ability of a 5-6 year old human, and they are social enough creatures of the ocean that any human captivity of them should simply be illegal, in my opinion. I think there's an argument to be made about some other apex species that are self aware enough and intelligent enough, that they should also be left in the wild, not made into a circus act. If it can recognize itself in a mirror, it's probably a species that should be protected. Cats and dogs can't even pull that one off yet.
Creative Designation I see two extremes of this debate. On one extreme, there are idiots who think we are a completely different entity and seperate from other animals, and on the other extreme there are idiots like you who think there is nothing different from humans and animals when there clearly is. And who downplays intelligent behaviour from other species? I don't think we have downplayed octopuses and their problem solving wits nor dolphin's indecipherable language.
We generally seem to find it difficult to understand intelligence as a non local expression of the whole ecosystem.
I mean we like to think that we are great because of all the tools we invented. But glider tools have actually invented by a selected fiew and the rest of just using them without any idea how they actually work. Which now begins to destroy the ecosystem because we are not smart enough (yet) to handle them.
@@joda57second5 as he mentioned before, they aren't as intelligent because you define their intelligence as such.
That hints at the possibility that you you need something to feel better about yourself. So you define yourself as smarter then animals because... Well they aren't going to argue about that are they? It's quite a safe way to feel superior, there isn't much that can threaten your ego there =)
That shirt looks so comfy
It looks like Josh’s shirt from specter :)
Oh, I recognize the cerebellum! That's the weak spot you had to shoot on the final boss in Starfox 64.
The brain blows its own trumpet
“Im not like the your other brains” -Human brain
Edit your comment again for it to make sense
I've heard the interpretation before that the human brain isn't special, it's just bigger in proportion to body size (as this video mentions). Because it's bigger, it can form more connections and develop more functions. The unique evolutionary path of humans didn't occur because of an ultra-rare mutation necessarily, but because our environment and pre-existing primate traits were such that the advantage of big brains was substantial enough to offset the enormous costs (extremely vulnerable infants, dangerous pregnancies, higher protein and calorie needs, etc.). As our brains got bigger, the rest of the body had to adapt to keep up.
What these findings suggest is that the evolutionary advantage of a bigger brain isn't that substantial without the ability to leverage it-that is, to translate complex thoughts into complex actions. And while (perhaps) the self-organizing nature of neurons means that bigger brains naturally lead to increased cognitive capacity without much need for special mutations, bigger cerebellums do *not* naturally lead to increased dexterity; so it was actually the cerebellum that needed the most evolutionary fine-tuning.
It kind of makes sense that modern humans would overlook this, because we now live in a world where, thanks to technology, we can do many, many totally different things just by operating our computers and phones. But at the point of departure of humans from the rest of the primates, what humans really needed was a cerebellum that better allowed them to actualize (and verbalize!) all the new thoughts they were having.
Much like how astronomy was held back for centuries by the assumption that Earth was the center of everything, biology is still being held back by the assumption that humans have some singular, unique thing that makes us special. We're never gonna find it, because it doesn't exist, and the continued search for it is just time and energy not being used for actually useful research. There is no one thing that makes us special, just a lucky combination of many non-unique things like language, fine motor skills, and longevity.
Wouldn't a lucky combination be one thing?
@@spacedoohicky No
Most underrated comment I have seen in a very long time. Good on you for being one of the few people able to disregard our collective hybris and instead opt for the pursuit of knowledge rather then the "We are so superior, because we say so" circlejerk most people have going on.
dude this guy is everywhere i go
With my limited knowledge of the brain, I’d have thought the most interesting parts were the hypothalamus, petuitary and amygdala, but maybe I just put a lot of thought into endocrine systems 🤔 this is was interesting, thank you!
Oh don't worry - the limbic systems seriously important for motivation, emotion, and instincive responses. But since most vertebrates have them, they tend to get dismissed when people are trying to prove that humas are 'different'
I'd like to see a video that dives into research on neuron growth, density, brain flow, Grey vs. White matter. The Blood Brain Barrier and Brain healing stimulation or medicine.
Fabulous sad really great for me. First time I ever believe I could have any consistency in my life.
Bot much?
@@matthewharris-levesque5809 lol
i remember when i studies the brain the cerebrum had pages and pages and passages and passages under it's description
but when it came to the cerebellum there was the only one or two lines under description lol
Crash Bandicoot be having a field day
When you know you have Aphantasia because of a SciShow video you watched, then Hank asks you to visualize a brain.
Ditto.
Saying you "have aphantasia" makes it sound like a condition to be cured. You have a unique brain and from my perspective you have fascinating capabilities, as I can not think about certain things in a meaningfull way without visualizing them, but you can.
Gentleman neocartex a is with density log scale dimension and neocartex b is with four frames and neocartex card is connected in singular omnipresency and right lung lever node also for oxygen purification with value mud dust.Thank you.
This title trips my brain up. Shouldn't there be another "as" in there? Shouldn't it be "the neocortex isn't as as special as we thought?"
From the beginning i m enchanted by the physiology of cerebellum ; i see it as the central place for our consciousness... yeah neocortex isn’t that complex and helpful as much cerebellum ;but i have to mention that it’s not about cerebellum itself ...its own connections with other parts (neocortex, spinal cord ,thalamus...)
What do you mean specifically with "our consciousness?" Where is ours different and in relationship to whom?
This might be interesting for scientist investigating animal intelligence
"just because something's important, doesn't mean it isn't very, very small. Tiny, like the size of a marble or a jewel"
Gentleman neocartex a is with density log scale dimension and neocartex b is with four frames and neocartex card is connected in singular omnipresency and right lung lever node also for oxygen purification with value mud dust.Thank you. Sometime follow psynus pyoneol theory.And finally check with seventh nervous system to first skin system of body.
Yes i knew it we aren't special like we thought now i want one that says that our consciousness isn't special
I'm curious how much of human growth has been derived from systematic learning in our society. We moved to a pretty intense learning social practice not found in any other animal. We invest a LOT of time and energy into this learning process, and all it (initially) does is get humans to a base level cognitive point at where we think people becomes competent and self-sufficient. We spend a couple decades of time doing just this. Tie this with natural selection, and I would expect this grossly favors brain structures that excel at this social structure. We started this process a very long time ago and have simply moved it towards an extreme end and built a lot of society around the resulting talent of the immense effort.
I wonder if we've gotten so far only because of this social process. It would also be interesting to see how average sizes of brain components have changed through many generations. What are we evolving ourselves into? There's a lot of bodily favoritism happening over the centuries based on how we have created our societies. What might our guess be 1000 years from now? How about 10,000 years from now? Where do the trends point to as the average of our species changes?
This I wonder aswell. To add to this, a lot of human cognition is done externally through tools like calenders, other humans, language etc, and we just learn things from these external, social sources before we mix them and create new ideas to feed to the herdmind. I wonder if humans' difference from other animals is just learning and/or having a more complex society as simple as that is to say
@@orbismworldbuilding8428 We are a society that's entirely living on the work of our ancestors to such a crazy degree, I don't think most of us really can fathom the idea. For example, you have power running to your home. You just accept it's there and had to do zero work to create it. But we benefit from it daily, and that power allows us to do immense things. We sit upon this massive stack of achievement, both cognitive and physical, and we spend 1/4 of our lives just learning to comprehend some of it.
It would seem we'd naturally favor people who can take advantage and excel in this environment, those that learn and cope with strangely alien magic and spend effort to understand and utilize it's capabilities. Only some actually learn in detail how specific elements work, but many do comprehend well enough and can utilize things efficiently. We don't need to know how to build a car to take advantage of its function. Those that do it better are the ones that succeed in life. Although, natural selection isn't what it used to be. We've kind of created an environment where it doesn't require much at all to procreate and perpetuate any level of competency. We are no longer getting eaten or die from infection or get unlucky with a poisonous berry. We have built easy mode to survival. It's only the extreme outliers that are unable to perpetuate a gene set.
But even so, we do huge work to operate within this world we've made. Along with the immense effort to put into learning, I would think this favors modified brain structures overall and pushes our brain configuration to something different. It's likely moving along a path that's highly divergent from other species.
@@Xmvw2X all i can really say is that i agree, and that's what i think sets us apart. If there are advanced alien species, they would likely share this sorts of trait, but i do wonder what other ways they have of achieving that. (Slightly irrelevant but it's a topic that comes up with talk of sophontism often enough.)
I don't think or society with a focus on education makes us smarter in the long term. Sure, individuals that excel in education often excel later in life, however great performance is not what drives evolution. The factor that drives evolution is the fact that a lack of performance reduces the chance for survival and we have largely removed that factor.
The fact that highly educated people on average have fewer children than those with little education, doesn't really move us toward a smarter society either.
@@creativedesignation7880 it's interesting because it shows how we aren't entirely evolved to be intelligent but rather to have control over our environments.
In the case of better smarter people asthey are often dubbed on some level possibly don't care as much about more about things like spreading their genes because they are more focused on spreading their ideas, ideals, and legacies.
Also, society itself is an organism one must remember, although dependant on us (like we to eukaryotes), as are other things we humans do.
Anyhow, what organism do you serve? What controls you?
History? Your interests? Society? Your genes? Other people? Your self? The economy? Industry? Technological progress? Ideals? The answer is all of them, but different people have favorites so to speak, and humanity has been evolving to work with these different "organisms" better and better, but throughout history even though it's been in ways similar to now this method is still being selected for. But it's been like this for a long time, there have always been dumber people, it's just that the ones who are the exceotion, who really had a point either to make, or that others agreed with, are the ones who get remembered.
I could see over time there become a split at very most, where there's distinct linneages of humans at some point one who were the "elite" and favor having fewer children but putting more into them, and peopek who aren't who have more children but put less effort. There are middle paths though.
Anyhow, if you think of specific types of people, you can see how humans adapt to fit niches even now, both socially, psychologically, things like k or r selection etc.
Something that has been identified, is that humans have really high neuroplasticity, and the ability to have things like mental "illness" (specific adaptations/niches/formats that current society/civilization isn't built around, thus making their life harder), that is another candidate for the "human outlier factor" or something
The book: Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal is ideal to see just how we do differ from all other animals and we have so much the same. He brings in the latest in animal behavioral science and compares brain structure and function with a whole host of animal types, not just mammals.
I'd love to watch videos about neurolinguistics! After all, language is the most complex thing created by the most complex network in the known universe (the human brain).
Improvements in various aspects of human intelligence have a multiplicative impact. If your memory improves by 10%, it would be fair to say that you have become 10% more intelligent. If your ability to predict future events based on current knowledge improves by 10%, you would be 10% more intelligent in this case also. A 10% improvement to both would yield a 21% total improvement. It would be hard to properly map all the different aspects which multiplicatively improve intelligence, but it is clear that making dozens of tiny improvements can easily multiply to enormous differences in capability.
Could the cerebellum not be enlarged to help coordinate bipedalism? I mean the cerebellum is strongly affected when drunk and that's supposedly what causes a lack of coordination. So lower functioning of our larger than normal cerebellum could seem to suggest that its size is mainly there to help us coordinate our unusual body plans. Which is also backed up by how long it takes our young to learn to control their bodies properly, something very uncommon for most other mammals. This implies that it is a taxing cognitive skill that requires a larger brain region to calculate coordinated movement. While it might've helped us get smarter coincidentally, I doubt the cerebellum was evolved to help us communicate or make tools, it was likely enlarged just to allow us to coordinate our strange bodies and had the side effect of giving us access to greater intellectual capacity.
The brain isn't really something you can separate into pieces to interpret expressive behaviors. The neocortex processes information and the cerebellum interprets the feedback into observable behavior. Thusly any behavioral expression can only be interpreted as a definable unit by including all complimentary information from every region of the brain expressing activation at the time of expression. This excludes the autonomic and peripheral nervous system, which are involved in many involuntary and reflexive responses.
He’s still my favorite gaming villain
The brain addressing itself
this information allows me to be a better pet owner. Lately, my sugar glider is presented with different "play grounds" at night around my living room to help her stay smart. I tell ya, it's helped very much!
There is a case in China of a woman who was born without a Cerebellum. She apparently has a fairly normal life, the finding (that she lacks a Cerebellum) was made by accident when she consulted a doctor because she had balance problems
It is called Cerebellar Agenesis and it is not extremely uncommon. It seems that birth defects to the brain can be compensated for in a surprising manner. People with hydrocephalus often miss large parts of their neocortex and have a more or less normal life.
My neocortex is offended, but my cerebellum is tickled pink!
3:11 The Bluths warned us that we were gonna get hop-ons...
Size is not everything: an important lesson we could all benefit from.
This bit isn’t related to the comment but
for anyone interested I make a lot of music here - instrumentals and songs of different types. So check it out if you’re into that.
@Him Yeah, yeah - genitalia are great when they're great; we all get that profound insight, by this point...
What is with everyone turning the volume way up at the intro lately.
I'm still convinced it's our language centers doing most of the heavy lifting. It provides the context to every other system we have, and makes a decently smart animal more than the sum of its parts.
This is why I believe bipedalism was crucial for humans developing intelligence, sure you can have relatively unintelligent bipedal animals like dinosaurs, but generally bipedalism if the brain already has the capacity for learning can in turn drive its fine tuning a development thanks to the range of fine motor skills a bipedal condition affords
Plot twist: all animals are fully aware and just pretend to be dumb because the life in balance with nature doesn't ruin the planet.
Well hey, it's good to clear up the misconception that it's our 'bigger brain' that makes us such a unique species. Perhaps we do have a special brain, but the big wrinkly bit on the outside might not be that unusual.
And of course, there's the flexibility and versatility that we get from having a massively protracted developmental stage for brain development, especially considering other species. Lots of time to adapt and learn something different, or grow different areas to specialise in a skill, or even overcome birth defects or injuries that for other animals would be a death sentence.
When my brain thinks of what a brain looks like, my brain shows me a an egg in a frying pan; any questions?
Mouse lemurs are pretty fancy, ngl.
If you think about it, it makes sense, think about cerebral-palsy vs what a lobotomy is.
I know they both affect the brain, but what specific parts of the brain do they affect?
@@allisond.46 cerebral palsy = cerebellum issues i believe, but i think lobotomies had to do with the prefrontal cortex. i know very little about this though, perhaps the neocortex includes the prefrontal cortex or vice versa? i’m not entirely sure OP’s comment makes sense but i kinda see the logic there. i’m just not qualified to make that call lol
My step mother's older brother was born with severe cerebral-palsy. He couldn't speak, eat by himself, walk - he couldn't physically do anything for himself, but my step mother said he knew everything that was being said, but just couldn't verbally communicate. He unfortunately died at 24 due to complications, but she says his mind was fully there ❤
@@rowing-away So why are you replying then?
@@sarahmarshall2474 I take care of someone with CP, she's pretty self-sufficient, just needs help with daily toiletry, food, and dressing, she's 32 and married + a college grad and school teacher. But we live in different times, if she were born 20 yrs earlier, her life would be extremely different & not for the better either.
Thought:
Neocortex is like gpu in computer. Quick at less complex instruction/code. Wrinkles are 3d nand/vram
Cerebellum is cpu (x86). Capable of more complex instruction set/computation.
Just spit balling here.
Before i hear the answer, i thing it's the default mode network, the connection superhighway in the brain, that makes us special.
The center dedicated to formulating UA-cam comments is located in the cerebellum.
But, what part of my brain makes me like stories about superheroes?
What next? Appendix is not a vestigial organ? Oh wait, SciShow already did that too! 😛
Hmmm, there are rare people with no cerebellums and they are somewhat uncoordinated and have a tendency to be overly impulsive, but they are still functioning speaking people.
Dr. Sariel Bellum doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well, but I suppose it could work
Species proclaimed to be special slowly finds out that they're not so special.
Joke's on you, you forgot I don't have a mind's eye
Aphantasia baby
Look at computers, aside from GPUs, ram and drives take up more physical space than the CPU. They also differ less between systems. The CPU is more dense, varied, and central to making the computer different.
I'm glad our brains are fairly similar to other primate brains; it means it'll be easier to develop mind upload technology (one needs to perform animal experiments in order to make this happen, otherwise it would be impossible).
The Cerebellum is highly active in dreams and subconscious roles, so it's not surprising since there is no such thing as free will we just give over to this pre-conscious beast.
I feel awareness makes us dumb compared to animals in some regards. For example, if a deer gets stressed and flees a threat. It doesn’t ruminate or concerns itself anymore after the threat is gone. Our cognitive ability is a double edged sword in the sense that while it allows us to coordinate and prepare for the future, it can also makes us it’s slave by creative obsessiveness, rumination and unnecessary anxiety; even when a threat is no longer there. This is what people call living in your head and not being int he present. In short, we are awesome and not at the same time. Go science!
P.S. was it scishow that showed that chimps beat us at number memorizing due to the fact that they don’t have language?
Your brain is suffering from poor nutrition. It would not be cognitively dysfunctional in this manner if it received the support it needs.
Anxiety, frustration and stress are responses from the neurons that they can not produce and utilize enough energy and replication to solve the problems they need to. So they trigger the 'stress hormones' (which are really stress relieving hormones, their purpose is to increase energy generation and alleviate stress).
It's a rule that I must get my fingers cut at least once within a 7-day period. Porous cerebellum may be what it is.
This was known over 20 years ago as evidenced by Andross in Star Fox 64.
Roses are Red
Violets are Violet
I’m adding that I am fancier than a mouse lemur to my resumé.
Great video, although there's one thing it fails to address. Humans are really not that different from other animals - just a little bit more processing power and ability for more abstraction and communication through language. I find it to be a bit of hubris to think we're on that much of a different level than other animals - a hubris that is already dangerous enough as humans keep justifying horrors they commit by claiming to be so much superior to other species.
As I told someone else, Horses might be smart, but we can drive Race cars.
@@spindash64 We can drive race cars, but there are lots of things animals do that we can't. For example, the extreme accuracy of archerfish requires some brain computing that we're not even close to being able to do, or the spacial integration ants do. We're over focused on the things that make us "special", ignoring that all species also have something that makes them just as special.
@@emilillez but we have Race cars. That’s special. You’re like the dad who’s never happy with his Kid because they only got 99 on the test instead of 110, when the next highest scoring kid got 73
Cerebellum is responsible for speech and fine motor skills... That would explain why I struggle with both.
my small brain is very dense, and im proud of it.
Fabulous is a really great app. But i am too depressed for this app. I just don't do things.^^` working on it.
I'm sorry you're not feeling so good.
Be kind to yourself and do things that you enjoy, or haven't tried and think you'll enjoy, even if they're only little things. Catch that negative voice in your head and when it's criticising you, say, "So -- what's wrong with that?"
I struggle with depression too, and I seem to be continually re-learning life lessons! It's difficult to keep on keeping on, to endure... But I'm the only one who can shape my life by knowing myself and my limitations, and knowing that acceptance isn't the same as being brow-beaten, but is a useful way to work things out.
I hope you don't feel I'm preaching at you, 'cos I'm not; just extending a hand of friendship in the hope that it helps and that you don't feel quite so alone. I'll be looking at Fabulous as well.
Good luck; count your blessings occasionally; be nice to yourself. 🌄⛈️🌩️☁️🌦️🌥️⛅🌤️☀️
I can't tell if it's depressing or cathartic to see science undergo the same realisation I did after high school
I don't think with my stomach. I think about me stomach.
Why do we always think we are special? It sounds like we are looking for some magic part of our brain that will show that we are not just an animal with a bigger brain
Because that bigger brain IS special. Chimpanzees don't have automatic weapons, and Crows don't have stir fry.
👍👏
So the creator of Power Puff Girls was on to something?
Still gotta discover what gave us the extra self awareness compared to other animals then. This was interesting!
An evolutionary mistake that should have been rectified as soon as sapience wormed its way into our brains
We don’t have extra self awareness. We just have the ability to talk to each other.
@@yYSilverFoxYy I disagree. We have the ability to be aware of our own awareness. People with impaired language capabilities also have this skill, so it's not entirely language-related.
I'm pretty sure there are other conscious and intelligent animals, they just weren't fortunate enough to evolve thumbs.
I had at least two cats that were obviously self-aware. One admired himself in the mirror at every opportunity.
Lol I guess this is why I don’t usually drink. Because I like logical things and drinking makes it harder to understand logical ideas:
Life is asinine, but nouns are 😎 k00L
Corvids and Octopuses have exceptional intelligence relative to all other animals, all without cortical gyri and sulci.
Ffff DNA! Epi it is!!
As someone with cerebral palsy (brain damage to the cerebellum), I'm a little disappointed to find it's even *more* important than we thought :-|
Don't worry. Human brains are very flexible and when certain parts are damaged, usually other parts will take over their functions.
Can I trade mine in for an octopus brain
What if my cerebellum is broken?
Our neocortex to body size is still way bigger . Much of the brain is dedicated to controlling muscles. The more leftover you have for thinking, the smarter you are...generally.
I'm pretty sure there will be a new study done in a couple years saying how special are neo cortex is.
Anyone who has ever met a human never thought it was special.