The Human Advantage: A New Understanding of How Our Brain Became Remarkable

by Suzana Herculano-Houzel

Why our human brains are awesome, and how we left our cousins, the great apes, a tale of neurons and calories, and cooking. Humans are awesome. Our brains are gigantic, seven times larger than they should be for the size of our bodies. The human brain uses 25% of all the energy the body requires each day. And it became enormous in a very short amount of time in evolution, allowing us to leave our cousins, the great apes, behind. So the human brain is special, right? Wrong, according to Suzana Herculano-Houzel. Humans have developed cognitive abilities that outstrip those of all other animals, but not because we are evolutionary outliers. The human brain was not singled out to become amazing in its own exclusive way, and it never stopped being a primate brain. If we are not an exception to the rules of evolution, then what is the source of the human advantage? Herculano-Houzel shows that it is not the size of our brain that matters but the fact that we have more neurons in the cerebral cortex than any other animal, thanks to our ancestors' invention, some 1.5 million years ago, of a more efficient way to obtain cooking. Because we are primates, ingesting more calories in less time made possible the rapid acquisition of a huge number of neurons in the still fairly small cerebral cortex—the part of the brain responsible for finding patterns, reasoning, developing technology, and passing it on through culture. Herculano-Houzel shows us how she came to these conclusions—making "brain soup" to determine the number of neurons in the brain, for example, and bringing animal brains in a suitcase through customs. The Human Advantage is an engaging and original look at how we became remarkable without ever being special.

Genres: Science, Neuroscience, Nonfiction, Psychology, Evolution, Biology, Brain

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2016

About the author

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzana_...

Reviews

[Amirography · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book of a journey of critical thinking by a scientist. It shows that even amongst the most critical people, you should still think critically and question everything that seems shady.

[Christopher L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book that adeptly covers not only the neuroscience of our "Human Advantage" (i.e., neurons in cerebral cortex and cooking...yes...cooking) but also the author's research 'adventures' in the scientific community. The middle of the book gets deep into the statistical weeds of neurons across several species but well worth the effort of wading through the "brain soup." One of my favorite fun facts from the book can be found on page 169: "And, as it turns out, the human brain does not have the highest relative energy cost: that honor goes to the tiny squirrel monkey's brain, which, with a particularly high number of neurons in the cerebral cortex, consumes an estimated 31.2 percent of the daily energy used by the monkey's entire body..."

[Vincent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has 2 parts: part 1 is very deep into neuroscience (which makes sense looking at the authors experience) but this can make for some very dry scientific prose. Part 2 is more interesting to someone like me without neuroscience background

[YHC · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very quick read of this book. Apart from the more detailed researches of animals/mammals neurons proportion compared to animals sizes. The main point is why homo sapiens became smarter than other primates?
The neuron activity is very vivid and take 25% of energy that we consume daily, the very huge different to make this happen because we homo sapiens mastered cooking. The fire usage pushed us to cook and cooking break the food into easier way to be absorbed by body, our brains got to use this fast energy to get to develop more cognition. Other animals, on the contrary eat raw food, takes longer time to digest, and other parts of body also need to use energy.

I am also interested in knowing if language forming could also contribute to the bigger development of human brains, but i think this could be the post side push, not the main tipping point.

[Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting analysis of the evolutionary advantages humans have gained as manifested mainly in our brains, as Herculano-Houzel herself said in her TED speech, the two keywords are: we cook! Being able to cook raw foods means being able to pre-digest our foods before they entering our bodies, hence obtaining more energies from the food than any other primates, which in turn helps boost the number of neurons in our cerebral cortex to a level unprecedented in animal history -- we are not the species with the largest brain, but we are certainly the species with the most neurons.

I highly recommend watching her TED talk if you simply want to get the core of this book, it was interesting and convincing.

[Naif Naji · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion, the book is really fascinating. it was talking about the history of a human brain development in comparing with the primates and the rodent. the author mentioned the advantage of human which is summerized in cooking technology . So we are with no doubt the cooking human. The book highlight the importance of neuron distribution in the frontal cortex specifically in the prefrontal region. there was an important correction in regard to the number of glial cells in comparison with the Neurons.
It is highly recommended, if you are looking for a very practical evidence about how we human evolved.
thank you

[Raquel Pires · Rating 3 out of 5]

É uma boa leitura ,conhecer o trabalho dessa neurocientista que fez a "sopa de cérebro" para determinar o número de neurônios no cérebro ,com o comparativo de diversas espécies , sua trajetória na pesquisa ,com outras diversas curiosidades como a evolução das espécies e a tecnologia.
O questionamento desse livro é: O que nos torna especiais se comparando a outros animais ?
E com a pesquisa dela ,vai fazendo todos os questionamentos. A leitura tem uma linguagem um pouco "difícil" com gráficos para interpretar,bem explicado ,mas requer um pouco de atenção e pesquisas para o entendimento!!

[Ilene Skeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting, Readable Update on Brain Science

Human evolutionary understanding has blossomed by leaps and bounds in the twenty years since I studied the subject in anthropology. The author makes a compelling positive case for our shared remarkability. For young people, this book could inspire a career of productivity in any field: sciencen the past 20 years since I obviously, but also technology, production, industry, trade, and for writers, books on science and science fiction. For nerds, the book includes the math underlying the charts. Have at it!

[Christiane Mise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sou leiga no assunto e cruzei com esse livro ao acaso. Achei que o livro iria por outro caminho, mais psicológico que biológico.

Orgulhosa ao ver que é de uma cientista brasileira, que realizou num laboratório numa universidade do Rio a contagem de neurônios de várias espécies animais. Triste por não ter ouvido falar dela antes desse livro e saber que ela já não faz mais pesquisas no Brasil.

Quanto ela conta sobre o processo de fazer sopa de cérebro, ela descreve de um jeito que confesso que em mim deu uma reviradinha do estômago. Ela fala disso com certo prazer, mas sei que não um prazer sádico e sim pelo prazer da descoberta científica.

Em momentos achei pouco repetitivo. Poderia ter incluído outras informações, por exemplo, como é feito o calculo do custo de caloria dos neurônios? Massa cinzenta e branca o que é?

Recomendo muito procurarem o TED da autora, já que o livro é apenas uma versão dele com mais dados.

[Thaizi Ono · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brazilian scientist Dr. Suzana Herculano-Houzel shows how human brain developed in an extraordinary way in this incredible book.

Do you like Science? This is the book for you!
Do you like easy understanding of a difficult issue? This is the book for you!
Do you like fun facts about our brain? This is the book for you!

Briefly, this is the book for you.

As a human (I am pretty sure), this book shows how amazing our brain can be.

[Abril♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro muy breve que explica una muy buena teoría de las capacidades cognitivas en humanos. Interesante y bien argumentado, pero definitivamente dirigido a gente con conocimiento previo. Me gustó bastante.

[Melissa Barbosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que livro maravilhoso! É uma aula sobre cérebros, humanidade e como fazer ciência. Um dos melhores livros que li este ano, com certeza.

[Lodhal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cientista brasileira

[Luan Mapelli Machado · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que livro incrível! Muito bem embasado e conectado. Você chega ao fim do livro desiludido e feliz!

[Daniel Domingues · Rating 5 out of 5]

irado

[Lavinia Zamb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensacional! Conteúdo de primeira!

[Badal]

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- John Carmack

[Benji · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moore packed the cerebral cortex of the (non-great ape) primate brain with a remarkable number of neurons. Cooked a meal and jumped over the energy law. The rest is history.

Humanity subsequently transcended man, but man should be wise to keep paying tribute to the importance of cultural transmission and technological innovation.

[Tuane Ferreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐

A Suzana é uma das professoras da pós de Neurociência e Comportamento que tô fazendo no momento. O módulo da semana era sobre a evolução do cérebro e ninguém melhor do que ela para ministrar essa aula. E, com o livro, consegui compreender ainda mais os conceitos, além de obter maiores informações sobre o assunto. Muito bom!