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Genetics > What makes human typical human > Flashcards

What makes human typical human Flashcards

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Biology 101 flashcards
1
Q

allometry

A

as an organism increases in size, the dimensions of its parts do not increase proptionally

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2
Q

What are the costs of a large brain?

A
  • it is metabolically expensive -> BUT there is no correlation bw brain size across mammals and metabolic rate
  • > larger brian will only envolve if payoffs are even greater
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3
Q

metabolic rate

A

amount of energy used by an animal per unit of time

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4
Q

expensive tissue hypothesis

A

metabolic requirment of large brains are offset by corresponding reduction of the gut

-> human gut is significantely smaller than predicted by patterns in other species -> need for high quality diet

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5
Q

lifting energetic constraint

A 
1 change in diet to fruit 
2 meat eating 
3 cooking food 
4 cooperated breeding
5 alloparental  care
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6
Q

evidence for change in diet

Howler and Spider Monkey

A

howler ( leaf eater) x spider monkey (fruit eater)

  • > monkeys of the same size differ in degree of brain development
  • > fruit eating spider monkey has a much better developed and larger brain
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7
Q

What are payoffs that make animals want a bigger brain?

A

1 Ecological hypothesis
2 social / machiavellian hypothesis
3 cultural intelligence hypothesis

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8
Q

Ecological intelligence Hypothesis

A

Selective pressure due to change in diet

  • > need to monitor the availability of dispersed food supply
  • > extractive foraging
  • > requirement of mental map in order to find food
  • > knowlege when food is ripe
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9
Q

extractive foraging

A

removal of food items from an embedded matrix

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10
Q

Does lifting constraint or selective pressure lead to larger brains?

A

higher diet quality leads to an (1) increased energy availabiltiy (2) more complex foraging behaviors and (3) more rapid assimiliation -> smaller gut -> increased energy availability

all these factors end up in larger brain
-> see graph in lecture 3

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11
Q

skills that are distinctly to human

A

there is something special about social domain ( physical domain monkeys and children are quite similiar )

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12
Q

social hypothesis

A

= large brains have envolved via intense social interactions and competition

1 Social Hypothesis (Dunbar)
individuals living in a stable social group face cognitive demands that individuals living alone dont

large brains of primates reflects the computational demands of the complex social systems that characterize the order
(-> pairbonded species have larger brains)
-> linear correlation between group size and neocortex

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13
Q

Machiavellian Hypothesis

A

what differentiates primates from other species is complexity in social life -> requieres domiance rank means who is dominant, is standing above you -> leads to need of face recognition

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14
Q

Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis

A

argues that humans unique cognitive skills is mainly due to species specific set of social cognitive skills for participating and exchangning knowledge in cultural groups

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15
Q

merging ecological and and social drivers

A

Ecological factors drive growth brain
Cooperation shapes brain (limited because it is often associated with cheating)
Culture may be crucial to rapid increase in skill learning needed for brain growth

-> three aspects are not in conflict with each other

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16
Q

dominance hierarchies

A

some individuals consistently able to displace others from the resource -> rank depends on strength , size age etc

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17
Q

stable hierarchy vs unstable hierarchy

A

stable hierarchy : low ranks have worse health and increased stress

unstable hierarchy : vice versa

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18
Q

social brain hypothesis

A

idea that maintaing social relationships requires devoted brain mechanisms -> social species tendence to have larger brains -> evidence is found in primates

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19
Q

Which features do humans and primates share?

A 
1 grasping by using their hands and feet
2 highly dependent on vision
3tend to hav forward facing eyes
4binocular vision and colour vision 
5 larger brains for their body size
20
Q

What are new world monkeys?

A

Platyrrhines

21
Q

Gibbons

A

long term bonds and social groups consist of monogamous pair plus one or more dependent offspirng

Brachiation :mode of hand, arm and shoulder anatomy -> involves swinging from branch to branch using only arms

22
Q

Orang Utans

A

fruit eaters and arboreal ( living in trees)

Polygyny with much larger males than females

23
Q

Gorillas

A

lives on ground ; knuckle walking

highly sexual dimorphic -> polygynous group structure ( single dominant maleand multiple female )

24
Q

Chimpanzees

A

knuckle walk, arboreal, omnivorous ( allesfresser) and occasionally hunt
fluid multiple male
multiple female social groups with a promiscious ( häufig wechselnde sex partner) mating structure

25
Q

The ape phylogeny

A

Humans belong to the great apes -> not equally related to but close to chimpanzees (99 % DNA resemblance)

26
Q

Phylogeny

A

Phylogeny, the history of the evolution of a species or group, especially in reference to lines of descent and relationships among broad groups of org

27
Q

Hominins

A

intermediate form of chimpanzees and humans

28
Q

australopthecines

A

4-1 million years ago

  • > skulls are chimpanzee like
  • > back then there were new savannahs and lots of the apes died bc they were more adapted to the forest

-> scenario for evoloution of BIPEDEL LOCOMOTION
disadvantage : time spent in trees
advantage: moving on the ground -> more energy efficient at slow speeds and upright absorbs less heat bc smaller surface to sun

29
Q

Origin of the genus Homo

A
  1. 5 million years ago
    - > brain size moves away from chimpanzee to human
    - migration from africa to southeast asia
    - appereance of stone tools
30
Q

The archaics

A
  1. 8 million years ago

- larger brains and bodies and more complex stone tools

31
Q

the origin of Homo Sapiens

A

200.000 years ago -> referred to as anatomically modern human

32
Q

What are old world monkeys?

A

catarrhines : baboons, macaques

33
Q

Were AMH a distinct species which replaced Neanderthals in Europe without interbreeding ?

A

AMH entering europe replaced neanderthals with little or no interbreeding

34
Q

pleistocene

A

fast and repeated oscillation between warm and wet climates and glacial periods

35
Q

holocene

A

current warm period that started 10.000 years ago -> metal working, agriculture and settled towns

36
Q

General intelligence hypothesis

A

larger brains enable humans to perform all kinds of cognitive operations more efficiently than other species

37
Q

Adapted intelligence hypothesis

A

cognitive abilities evolve in response to relatively specific environmental challenges

38
Q

A gene that makes human brains unique

A
  • found in modern human as well as it was carried by neanderthals
  • testing in mice embryos showed that it has profound impact -> BUT gene does not have same impact evry time
  • gene is highly active in stem cells that make neurons in neocortex
  • > gene does not make us smarter than animals but it is seen as key part what makes us human
  • > proximate explanation
39
Q

Chimps vs cows

A
  • both have brains about 400grams
  • > whatever chimpanzees exhibit more flexible, complex behaviors , have wider behavioral and vocal repetorie and larger learning capacities
40
Q

Encephalization quotient (linked to brain size relative to body size

A

as an organism increases in size, the dimensions of its parts do not increase proportionally
Brain size = C (Body size) *k

41
Q

Where are most neurons in the brain located?

A

98% in Cerebellum
-> humans have 16 billion neuron and gorillas and orang utans 9 billion in cerebral cortex

-> high number of neuron provide us with capacity or potentially to learn (=innate capacity to learn)

42
Q

Factors for evolution of learning

A

1 innate capacity to learn
(without training and learning children arrest at stage of raw material -> no problem solving skills)N

2 modern life -> people are exposed to challenges

3 increased genetic improvement

43
Q

HAR1

A

cortical expansion, increased cortical control of behavior (less by spinal cord)

44
Q

FOXP2

A

enhanced the capacity to speak and learn a language

45
Q

srgap2

A

enhanced learning (synaptic plasticy)

46
Q

FOXP2 in mice

A

lead to increase of vocalizations and better learning capacities

47
Q

FOXP2 contribution to language evolution

A
  • > you can teach apes symbols to a certain extent but never how to speak
  • > FOXP2 led to an increase in vocal flexibility

Genetics (5 decks)

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