Discuss how vision lead to developments in the brain and soc

Discuss how vision lead to developments in the brain and social adaptations. Be specific and draw on data discussed in Chapter 6 of Fuentes.

You should be familiar with and use terms such as Oligocene, Anthropoid, proconsul, and brain to body ratio for example.

Solution

The vision is responsible fo the developments in the brain that guides the individual for the necessary adaptations. Like we have seen how the humans have evolved from the stages of the Oligocene to primates age of proconsul. The vision is not the only primary factor for the development of the brain. There are several other factors that count for the development of the brain. It is suggested that around 10 million years ago when there was an era of earlier Apes when all the four limbs were used, the brain started to adapt itself to the danger that comes along in the form of attacks or the task of grabbing food. The vision was responsible for the selection of the bipedalism which meant the freeing of the forelimbs for the handedness for the development of the gripping of food or the stones or wood stems for their protection.

The vision plays aN important role in the development of the brain as it is responsible for the sending of the signal to the brain for the necessary decisions. It was about 5 million years ago that the human brain began to develop and adapt both in size and volume. There are several theories that are proposed for the study of the brain development and its social adaptation. One such adaptation is the social brain hypothesis that is suggested by the anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who states that the brain does not develop to solve the social and ecological problems rather it developed as a means for the survival and reproduction in a large social group.

Another factor that is responsible for the developments of the brain is the brain to body ratio. It is estimated that the ratio of brain to a body can be hypothesized to estimate the intelligence of the animal. Though it is inaccurate at most of the times. the size of the brain usually increases with the body size of an animal. The animal mice have a similar brain to body ratio to humans, while the elephants have a lower brain-body ratio. The relationship of brain to body ratio is not enough to decipher the complexity of behavior and the social adaptation but several other factors are also responsible for the evolution of cerebral cortex and the degrees of folding the brain undergoes.