Saturday, March 14, 2009

HUMAN BRAIN EVOLUTION

Although we know that evolution affected the development of the cerebral cortex -increasing the number of interneuronal connections- we don’t know yet with certainty the specific environmental conditions and the resultant renewed neuronal connections. If we know the prevous, today we would be promoting a culture of advanced brain development. To explain the emergence of the cerebral cortex, some assume that the continuing practice of hunting, the extreme cold environment (glaciations occur every 50000 years in all the earth) and others, conditioned the evolution of the brain. In sum, added the need to stress, seem to have been the driving force impelling human brain development.

Which implies that we are facing an evolution, not completed. Some scientists postulate that if we extract early (shortly after birth), the brain of its limitations : bone cranium, this procedure will permit the expansion of the cerebral cortex, which confronted with new patterns of need and stress will promote more memory, less dream, more creativity. On the other hand, people assume that certain racial groups have evolved their brain more than others, being more intelligent putting as examples more Nobel Prize winners, more businessmen and artists, midle classes among the best in the world, etc, blamed this development to better schools, better teachers, better economy and obviously to more advanced brains. When we discuss this problem, some experts assume that the most influential factor in the success of this race, is the largest exodus and travels that they have performed either individually or as a group (and continue to do so), allowing them to compare and choose. As all know, the brain instinctively learns by analogy and comparison.

If so, certain racial groups would have developed over time different adaptative mental worldviews, some more limited than others. And as every 50 000 years, it is possible that some adaptations can become DNA fingerprinted they became into hereditary. Chomsky and others, support the innate characteristics of human language. It follows that human mental world are many and as varied as the number of people inhabiting the earth, but some cosmovisions share common traits in certain racial groups expressing their culture, being some more advanced than others. As it is understood some racial groups of people that traveling less, compare less.

If a person could travel at the speed-of light all our solar system and saw all the moons, comets, asteroid belts, rotations, translations, he would not agree with many theories or facts given by true at the present time. His wider mental worldview would be different and more accurate than the current one. The same will happen if suddenly the Homo habilis (2 000 000 years) and the Homo sapiens sapiens were face to face. The first will not understand the nature of the fire (combustion of oxygen), self-prohibiting many facts and self flow of ideas, because his limitations, limiting his brain development. But the coexistence with H sapiens sapiens would lead to 2 possibilities: a) their own marginalization and extinction due to his limitations or b) to accelerate his brain development. The presence of H sapiens sapiens will pose him more stress and need. A normal cohabitation would accelerate the development of his brain in order to avoid being displaced. This has already happened: Neardenthals meeting with the Homo sapiens sapiens.

It follows that there are ways to accelerate human cognition brain. Some shamans and their patients, from old Peruvian pre-Columbian cultures, ingested hallucinogenic tea in the Peruvian coast: mescaline (contained in Sanpedro cactus), in the mountains: cocaine (in coca leaf tea) in the jungle: harmine tea (ayahuasca). In the case of coca it enhanced considerable physical effort and in the case of ayahuasca and Sanpedro they permit access to insights beyond the known (humanized snakes, colored words, bizarre distortions of figures). In the course of thousands of years, the human mind reached perceptions and a mental world of fixed forms, limited by the constraint of space-time and historical boundaries making a world supposed to be, including many limitations. A central role in this task is typically performed by brain neurotransmisors (NT) chemicals recyclable transmitters of sensory information from neuron to neuron). As expected, the normal world mentally fixed from humans change when instead of the normal NTs, similar chemicals are used. Most hallucinogens are quite similar to the normal NT. This explains why the transmission of information continues, albeit in a distorted way, causing pleasure that but become addicted. However these hallucinogenic substances are releasing just the limitations of our mental world.

The hallucinogenic chemicals, expanded our worldviews in a similar way that the meeting of Neardenthals with the H sapiens sapiens, referred above. For an artist limited to realism, restricted to paint the sky always blue or reddish-yellow sun, will be a novelty to discover the surreal art. It was not hard for them to use hallucinogens to see easily new things. Some scientists have resolved their doubts in their dreams. Amphetamine developed in 1944, suddenly shorten the number of hours of sleep due to prolonged action of NTs. What would happen if cognitive enhancers like Provigil (used by managers and students to remain at the forefront of knowledge), is suddenly swallowed by millions of workers from India and China?. Or, the Rapirinole that increase the concentration of brain dopamine, stimulating creativity. Some societary laws punish certain procedures that enhance brain evolution. As Nick Bostrom said today's medicine is based on 3 principles: prevention, diagnosis and cure. It does not take into account the enhancement of our brain normal potentialities. With or not the ingestion of cognitive enhancers, our brain will undoubtedly develop over many years in persons subjected to stressful work (heads of state, leaders of any kind, elite athletes, etc.) which will be working in games in which life is threatened, or there are great economic rewards.