Is there a relationship between brain size and the amount of body fat?

Thebrain tissue consumes a lot of energy. As a general rule, if an animal species develops a larger brain than its ancestors, the increasing demand for energy can be satisfied either by obtaining new sources of food or by compromising other functions of the organism. Furthermore, a team of researchers from the University of Zurich has found thatfat storage potential usually goes hand in hand with relatively small brains, except for exceptions such as human beings. In fact, the ability of humans to use more energy depends on three key factors: the common care of the offspring in “nurseries”, a higher quality diet and their ability towalk up.

Thehuman brain is three times larger than that of great apesTherefore, the need to use more energy is more pressing for man than that of his closest relatives. Although many scientists long accepted the hypothesis that primitive men were able to redirect energy to the brain at the expense of having a smaller and smaller digestive tract, the authors of the new study have shown that mammals with relatively large brains generally They have an equally large digestive system. “The data set contains one hundred species, from the deer to the shrew”, explains Ana Navarrete, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at the Institute and Museum of Anthropology of the University of Zurich (Switzerland).

The study, published inNature, also reveals that fat storage is related to the evolution of brain size. Although adipose tissue does not consume a large amount of energy,fat animals spend a lot of energy carrying excess weight. This is particularly true when the animal runs or climbs. According to the researchers, this energy would be detrimental to the expansion potential of the brain. In other words, large fat deposits are often made at the expense of mental flexibility. Humans, along withWhalesand theseals, we are the exception to this rule, probably because, as in the case of swimming, our bipedalism does not require much more energy even when we are a little more plump.