Transcript

The ultimate intelligence test, the evolution of the human brain.

Ball up the organisms on the planet with a structural brain were to enter into an ultimate contest of intelligence, which species would come out on top? Would it be the organism with the largest brain, or a smaller one, or somewhere in between. It turns out, the winner of this hypothetical intelligence contest is neither the largest brain nor the smallest. In fact, it's not even the most complex. Instead, the contest winner would be the brain of a relatively unassuming primate, the human.

So what is the secret behind the success of the human brain? What ingredients were needed for the development of human intelligence and cognition? To answer that question, we have to take a deeper look at the evolution behind its development and how those changes made modern man superior to other species. Evolution is often termed descent with modification, and is defined as the change in the characteristics of a species over time, relaying back to a common ancestor. The theory relies heavily on the process of natural selection to select for the most favorably fit traits.