?

?

?

詼諧的語(yǔ)言，生動(dòng)的內(nèi)容一分鐘快速掌握科技最新動(dòng)態(tài)

?

本期節(jié)目音頻下載

Neandertal Brains Retained Infantile Shape

Modern human babies are essentially learning machines. After birth, their brains grow in leaps and bounds, allowing infants to lay the groundwork for future social and cognitive achievement. But it wasn’t that way for Neandertals. At least in terms of the shape of their brains, Neandertal newborns pretty much coasted into adulthood.

現(xiàn)在的嬰兒都是純天然學(xué)習(xí)機(jī)。出生以后，他們的大腦就會(huì)迅速發(fā)育，為將來(lái)獲得社會(huì)經(jīng)驗(yàn)、提高認(rèn)識(shí)打下基礎(chǔ)。但生活在遠(yuǎn)古的尼安德特人的大腦卻并非如此，至少在大腦的形狀上，尼安德特新生兒與成人之間并無(wú)差異。

Scientists have shown that Neandertal brains are about the same size as ours. Yet our Paleolithic brethren are not known for having been great scholars. To probe this cognitive conundrum, researchers took CT scans of 11 Neandertal brains, including one newborn. And they compared these images to those of modern humans.

尼安德特人的大腦和現(xiàn)代人的大腦在大小上相差無(wú)幾，但生活在舊石器時(shí)代的人類(lèi)祖先之中并未出現(xiàn)賢能之人。為了破解這一謎題，研究人員對(duì)包括一名新生兒在內(nèi)的11名尼安德特人的大腦進(jìn)行了CT掃描，并將影像圖與現(xiàn)代人類(lèi)的進(jìn)行了對(duì)比。

They found that baby braincases are similar in size and shape, regardless of their parentage. All are elongated, most likely to smooth passage through the birth canal. But modern human baby brains grow more globular in the first year of life, changes that reflect a massive wave of neural development. That phase change is absent in Neandertals, whose brains retain that extended newborn shape throughout their lives. The results appear in the journal Current Biology. [Philipp Gunz et al., "Brain development after birth differs between Neanderthals and modern humans"]

結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，不論父母是尼安德特人還是現(xiàn)代人，其新生兒顱骨的形狀大小都極其相似，都是拉長(zhǎng)形的，這很可能是為能夠順利從產(chǎn)道出生而形成的。但現(xiàn)代人類(lèi)嬰兒的大腦在嬰兒出生后的一年內(nèi)會(huì)越長(zhǎng)越圓，這對(duì)大腦神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)發(fā)育意義重大；而現(xiàn)代人類(lèi)大腦的這段發(fā)育時(shí)期是尼安德特人所沒(méi)有的，他們的大腦結(jié)構(gòu)終生都停滯在嬰孩時(shí)期。該研究報(bào)考刊登在《當(dāng)代生物學(xué)》上。

It’s not clear whether our well-rounded brains made us the pointy-headed intellectuals we are today. But they do make us look smart in a cap and gown.

是不是因?yàn)榇竽X發(fā)育得太完全而讓我們變成了尖頭知識(shí)分子，這還不得而知，不過(guò)讓我們體面了不少倒是真的~

點(diǎn)擊進(jìn)入?yún)⑴c科學(xué)60秒>>>?

聲明：音視頻均來(lái)自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)鏈接，僅供學(xué)習(xí)使用。本網(wǎng)站自身不存儲(chǔ)、控制、修改被鏈接的內(nèi)容。"滬江英語(yǔ)"高度重視知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)保護(hù)。當(dāng)如發(fā)現(xiàn)本網(wǎng)站發(fā)布的信息包含有侵犯其著作權(quán)的鏈接內(nèi)容時(shí)，請(qǐng)聯(lián)系我們，我們將依法采取措施移除相關(guān)內(nèi)容或屏蔽相關(guān)鏈接。