Atheists for Liberty News - Issue #7
Featured Article:
Is the Human Brain God-Like or Ape-Like?
by Ryan Tuttle
Many Christian religions teach that God made humans in his image, this is based on the text in Genesis 1:27: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” But what does comparative neuroscience say about the nature of the human brain? Is it God like or ape like?
The mental capacities of humans are indeed astonishing when compared to many other species. This is especially true in areas such as language, social cognition, and the creation of technology. The brain is now three times the size it was at the beginning of its evolution seven million years ago. However, to understand the nature of the human brain, psychologists often take a comparative approach. Although comparative studies can utilize variety of species, looking at humans’ closest relatives the great apes are particularly useful.
Genetic evidence not only shows that humans share a close phylogenetic heritage with great ape species such as chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas but also that humans and chimpanzees are more closely related than chimpanzees and gorillas.
Size Matters
One way we can compare brains across species is by looking at size and morphology. As far as mental abilities are concerned both overall size and relative size seem to be important, and humans have the largest brain of the great apes and generally have very large brains when compared to relative body size. There is fossil evidence that suggests that some of the major human specializations of the brain came after humans evolved the ability to walk upright.
Figure 1. FMRI of a Chimpanzee and human brains (Sherwood, Rilling, Holloway, and Hof 2009).
Another important factor regarding size and morphology of the brain is that of specific brain regions, which as it turns out have developed differently in humans and chimpanzees. In Figure 1 you’ll notice the similarities in the overall structure when we compare a magnetic resonance image of both species. However, in the human brain the neocortex (area near the forehead) and the cerebellum (branching structure near base of the skull) are larger than that of the chimpanzee, but the brain stem appears to be similar in size and structure.
Descent with Modifications
More subtle comparisons can be made when comparing tissue samples from various brain regions. For example, the visual cortex in humans shows modifications that differ from that of other great apes which may indicate that humans have a special way of processing motion related information. Although there is limited comparative research of specific connection patterns between the human and primate brains there have been findings showing neuron projections in humans that run from motor cortex to the motor neurons controlling the larynx. This suggest that humans may have special neuron development specific to controlling the larynx for speech.
Unfortunately, God’s brain has been unavailable for analysis so there are no comparative studies comparing god neurons to human neurons. However, the comparative studies that are available suggest that the human brain is overwhelmingly ape-like with some specialization for abilities that make us human.
Reference
Sherwood C.C., Rilling J.K., Holloway R.L., Hof P.R. (2009) Evolution of the Brain in Humans – Specializations in a Comparative Perspective. In: Binder M.D., Hirokawa N., Windhorst U. (eds) Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29678-2_3153
Book Review
Missing Frames: Memoir of a Woman Living with Hidden Disabilities
By Kristine Harley
“Scooter,” a successful black businesswoman, moves from Silicon Valley with her second husband to the Trinity Alps Preserve in California. Living without electricity or running water, Scooter and her husband grapple with rural politics while going through the application process to appear on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” so they can build a house. Scooter survived a brain injury in a car accident in 1976, which altered her personality and left her estranged from her family.
Now, living in Shasta County in 2009 with her husband and her daughter, she slips and falls in an unnamed store and suffers yet another, more traumatic brain injury. He husband, struggling with schizophrenia, abruptly leaves her and she must sell the property. Robbed of her memory, Scooter copes alone with a lawsuit against the store, children with ADD and bipolar disorders, indifferent relatives, the store’s attorneys who dispute her “hidden disabilities,” and the doctors who distrust her symptoms.
Scooter remembers past events, then forgets them. At times she cannot make new memories but is aware of this, and then her memory returns when her emotions take over—or when possible racism intrudes. At times sardonic and self-aware, at other times resentful and defensive, and still determined to have a career, Scooter reaches out to friends and colleagues for help as her lawsuit moves forward. With a positive philosophy and drawing upon her creative gifts, she too moves forward.
Scooter’s narrative is associative rather than chronological, jumping back and forth in time. Yet a coherent timeline emerges, poignantly bookended by the dreams that she once held for her California retreat.
Her observations are sometimes chilling. For example, watching an interview with two other brain injury victims, she notes that the one with a supportive husband had come to depend on him, leading to a kind of physical and mental atrophy, whereas the abandoned victim, like Scooter herself, was more proactive and independent, taking charge of her own care.
There is anger here, helpless rage at times, and honest questions about whether or not a situation involved some racism against her. But there is no self-pity! This astonishing survivor of two brain injuries will challenge the reader to reassess his or her own capabilities and priorities. Alternately detailed and vague, Scooter’s heartbreaking story circles back to fill in—or admit defeat about—her amnesiac lapses with sadness and forgiveness.
Being a self-published memoir by a first-time writer, the book has not garnered the attention it deserves. This disorienting and powerful account of a woman’s search for dignity and freedom is simply one of the best memoirs I have ever read.
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