What is so special about the human brain? | Suzana Herculano-Houzel

The human brain is puzzling -- it is curiously large given the size of our bodies, uses a tremendous amount of energy for its weight and has a bizarrely dense cerebral cortex. But: why? Neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel puts on her detective's cap and leads us through this mystery. By making "brain soup," she arrives at a startling conclusion.
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[@embluvya]

Wow. I love how clearly she explains everything. This is amazing.

[@GlaucioCoutinho]

HadenXCharm In general, the path to get the truth is the simple, but reasonable, explanation

[@Stan_144]

Agree. This a a great talk.

[@LeeCoangSee]

i love her

[@emillyyelen5169]

@@cat.736 so?

[@kaze6562]

3:52 how many neurons does a human brain have 7:56 why does it cost so much energy 9:09 relationship between body size, number of neurons, and energy intake 10:42 how did humans get here (get more energy out of the same foods: cooking)

[@fumpus3714]

You are a true chad

[@srimansrini]

This is one of the fascinating study ever conducted about the development of brains. If you have brains you should watch this.

[@ducminh7568]

according to the brain

[@LongNguyen-jq6yg]

Damn thus vid looks so cool, wish i have a brain to watch it tho.

[@olgaroche4422]

Open School why you don’t feed pets with cooked food so they can talk to you ? The truth is that dogs followed men as wolfs from beginning and pigs were domesticated and have eaten same food as humans as leftovers all along and after all these years along side of humans are still not talking to as as far I can Understand ?

[@dylanbrookbank1935]

She discovered more about the brain, using a brain???

[@adityamishrasc2579]

But I am a chimp 😔😔😔

[@fluffygungan4344]

I cook, therefore I am.

[@ivbustama]

***** I think that was the intention.

[@ivbustama]

***** no need to get annoyed. I just somehow suspect that someone who doesn't know Descartes wouldn't find it funny

[@ivbustama]

***** yeah, and u?

[@priyankamarka9301]

No, you eat, therefore you are. Doesn't matter who does the cooking.

[@whatshisname3304]

i think about food , therefore i think, but i have nt invented fire yet! discovered, ithink

[@tallestGirafffe]

What most people are missing here is that she's talking from an evolutionary standpoint. This process of human evolution alongside cooking has taken millions of years. So no, this is not something we can teach our pets overnight, and no, if you skip a meal tomorrow you won't lose a few billion neurons.

[@sashx05]

tallestGiraffe Well that's obvious lol, Her research is very interesting and well done.

[@RobertoMurer]

Great comment

[@Boog1137]

The fact that this has to be explained is sad though. It should be intuitive that massive change requires massive periods of time

[@oscarvargas7438]

@@Boog1137 precisely why most need reminding. The process of information takes time at different levels of understanding.

[@hyperion3704]

@Vick Nad Source? If this is legit, it might be the answer to my question.

[@caiolira09]

O inglês dela é tão perfeito que eu havia assistido essa palestra há 2 anos e só hoje eu fui descobrir que ela é brasileira. Incrível.

[@PrimoPaganiniNeto]

O inglês da Suzana me surpreende também; eu estava pensando nisso quando li seu comentário. Abraço.

[@felipesales7457]

Eu já tinha visto esse vídeo há alguns anos atrás, mas hoje eu assisti porque estou estudando inglês. Essa mulher é encantadora

[@brunacbsantos]

Eu já conhecia a Suzana e fiquei surpresa em perceber que o vídeo é em inglês

[@profaaulas9555]

Engraçado.. ela tem uma certa puxada no s às vezes q pensei q fosse portuguesa. Deve ser carioca, no mínimo

[@ahmariani]

Eu fui pesquisar de onde era pq achei o sotaque peculiar na pronúncia de algumas palavras. E tcharam, ela é brasileira haha

[@jimeffinger6865]

5:10 holy crap, she keeps a mouse brain tucked in her belt. I think I'm in love

[@scottcupp8129]

I've always been amazed with the brain and how it functions. Especially when I am dreaming. I guess reality is perception. Maybe that is why dreams seems so real. Can the brain differentiate a wake state and a sleeping state?

[@BarbaraBrasileiro]

OMG, I don't know why but I got REALLY emotional with this. I'm crying. It's so humbling to see that our ancestors were onto something there when they dominated fire and that made what our brain is today. Maybe I'm emotional out of gratitude towards them. And what is funny is that I hate cooking but after this talk maybe I'll staring appreciating cooking because that's what made me human. Thank you!

[@Polishock]

I read the comments and it seems like the thing most people miss here is that eating more calories won't make your brain bigger, but it will allow you to sustain a a larger brain. Combine that with natural selection and assuming that: greater intelligence = greater chance of survival and procreation, eating a greater amount of calories allowed the species that would become humans to evolve in a direction of increased brain size.

[@mef1975]

+PoliShock That was so well worded, I'm gonna have to quote you.

[@lewismaddock1654]

Indeed, If you come to think of it, it's just like processors. They are getting more economic, and keeping at the same size even though they get more processing power. There is probably a neuron X energy X efficiency threshold. But those critical points can just be calculated in theory for now. And also, more synapses make a brain more economic I suppose, maybe we don't need more neurons for now, just to use them better.

[@Vysair]

By the same logic, that would mean our housecat and dog will soon get increasingly smarter to the point where it is as smart as us today but wont probably catch up to human intellect because we also are going to get smarter.

[@adamyahya4734]

Vysair. If you actually listened to the video, you’d realize that the topic is about human evolution, it doesn’t work for other animals, for example, dogs,

[@coolfer2]

@@Vysair And don't skip the whole primate brain stuff. Your dog needs to reach the primate's neuron density first.

[@evelinsantos8090]

I was just studying for my neuro exam and your name came up in one of my books. I am Brazilian as well and I am studying Psychology in Ireland. I am so proud to be a Brazilian woman and happy to watch this video with your work. Thank you. it is inspiring !

[@AaronKlapheck]

One of my favorite TED talks!

[@zai4booc]

Aaron Klapheck So what was about this so interesting? so is she saying that we go here because of food? like what ?

[@AaronKlapheck]

***** yep, cooking food is what sets us apart from all other forms of life and is the reason we can be smart. Cool!

[@mef1975]

+Aaron Klapheck It allowed us to be smart at first, yeah, cool, but it has become a problem, not cool, we didn't keep channeling our energies into developing more complex cognitive abilities, we tried to simplify things, so now we're getting fatter instead. Idiocracy here we come! Nah, actually, I'm hoping we'll be channeling the excess energy into evolving the heart and skin. What is integral to survival these days? Lack of emotion? Being a fascist?

[@KingaGorski]

Very very fascinating! I never would've guessed the end of this speech would have us contemplating how cooking foods led to our amazing human evolution. As a side note, I really appreciated how fast she spoke in this talk - kept me sharp!

[@renno0301]

This might be the best lecture I've watched in months.

[@ProfessorBorax]

It's been a long time since I've heard such a good TED speech. Two thumbs up!

[@nsfa19]

Fantastic! Great study and great explanation. Congratulations!

[@Mr_BenPrime]

Excellent TED talk, both subject matter and delivery. I could have listened to a lot more.

[@m.c.4458]

no snacks required?

[@eu29lex16]

Pseudoscience.

[@TopperPenquin]

Ann became Dumber

[@CybranM]

Really interesting video, I've thought about this question for quite some time. Thanks for the answer.

[@junnydpetra]

Que orgulho termos uma pesquisadora tão fantástica no Brasil.

[@crystallitchford6003]

The speech, the research, and the findings are absolutely incredible! I am truly blown away and now need to research how far these finding have come since this speech was originally given.

[@soumyadeeproy6611]

she explains so nicely,I am just mesmerized

[@JPK965]

Very precise , informative & enthralling presentation. Thank you TED, thank you Suzana.

[@vanderfisio]

como não amar essa mulher?

[@bossle6834]

Vander Martins celebro

[@raizenger2230]

Só ter aula com ela que você vai deixar de amá-la.

[@bossle6834]

raizenger2230 tu teve aula com ela ?

[@raizenger2230]

Ela dava aula pra Medicina e pra Biomedicina na UFRJ. Fui aluno dela no 2º período de medicina (2014.1) no PCI de neuro. Ela é uma excelente professora, mas ela tem um ego gigante e quando cometia erros nunca assumia. Sem falar as patadas gratuitas que ela dava constantemente. Muita gente da turma n curtia ela, mas uma parte a adorava.

[@heeynicolle]

Que ruim, ela parece ser tão legal

[@marcellaobst]

Muito orgulho, cientista mulher e brasileira

[@edithkapcari6896]

I agree with you Ms. Herculano-Houzel in many arguments, especially when you say that our brain is not that special as to make us feel superior and kill those other poor creatures. Ok, cooking saves us time, but the simple question is, how healthy is that food we cook? In most of the cases we just combine food with some oils and some other fats which only produce energy, but loose lot's of their values from this cooking process. What we get at the end is some sort of energy with no values, which is the reason why we are fat but still malnourished. I believe that we can take all the amount of the daily energy we need to feed our brain and our body by eating healthy and natural products like nuts, fruits and vegetables. We can also cook them but still preserve their nutritional values. You can not compare eating raw thousands of years ago with now. Today we know which plant contains what and how many proteins, vitamins, carbs, fats and so on we need daily... there is no need to be bestial and inhuman, there is no need to kill any kind of poor creature!!!

[@merickarakas]

It was so cool, thanks alot. Learned something realy important and I hope my nerons will link it when I sleep as fast as they can on my cortex.

[@luanabatista2636]

A melhor descoberta do dia! Que mulher incrível. Que palestra maravilhosa.

[@norymusic]

So simple, yet so awe-inspiring.

[@jayantaroy1203]

One of the most mind blowing TED talk

[@justicedodson4896]

Rename tittle to fucking mind blow

[@karinamatos4253]

OMG! I am so amazed! She is amazing!

[@jameshardmanjr2527]

I am glad I bumped into this on the first. Got my question answered. Thank you.

[@willofone2120]

cool, this was very informative and expanded my perspective. i enjoyed this talk.

[@Bigbahlsen]

Just when I begin my raw food diet...

[@azzanine1710]

DW if your diet had any though put in to it at all there will be foods that achieve the same purpose as cooked food. Cheeses and yogurts have the same predigestive elements only difference being one method uses heat to make digestion easier and the other uses bacteria to do it. Then again I don't know much about "raw" diets so I don't know what they consist of.

[@conanroxorz]

While what she says is likely true, it's also true we now have access to and can afford to eat much larger amounts and variety of raw food than are predecesors did. You need to combine a lot of fruit and vegetables to get all the nutritiens you need, but you can do it now, and still have a good portion of your day free to do other stuff. Whereas for someone even as little as a few decades ago, that would have been nearly impossible to do. Unless they were either very rich, or very lucky with where they lived, or what they had access to. So i would conclude that to get where we are now, at least as quickly as we did, we had to go down the meat path, and now, since we have build a world with so much abundance, at least in the western portion of the planet, you don't need meat anymore to meet your diatery needs.

[@ndndndxxx3]

Adding more calories won't help your brain, it'll be stored as fats. Reducing calories than normal will lead to your muscles breaking down first, then the fats. I suggest you to adopt a balanced diet, that's it. Excessive raw food isn't suitable for your body. If you want to reduce weight, you might have go for fasting diets which are extremely effective.

[@ferdinandbardamu3217]

"Reducing calories than normal will lead to your muscles breaking down first, then the fats." Seriously, this makes no sense. Why would your body break down a tool for survival (muscle) first, as opposed to fat, which is stored energy? Your body will first look to the glycogen stored in your muscles, then once that's used up, it will begin to use your fat. Numerous studies show this to be true. People who go on 3-5 day fasts lose zero muscle, but lose fat via ketosis. Fasting also increases neurogenesis, so I am somewhat skeptical of this woman's claims.

[@thisisntallowed9560]

@@azzanine1710 Interesting, but I think yogurt has a lot of sugar and cream in it

[@shirleybatista6403]

Que palestra incrível. Uma descoberta maravilhosa! Cientista brasileira e inglês impecável, amei! Assisti maravilhada e com desejo enorme de saber mais. Gratidão!

[@gabrielmmon]

Recomendo muito o livro dela “a vantagem humana” conta toda a história da vida dela, em volta dessa pesquisa que levou anos, muito interessante, e ela vai bem afundo explicando experimentos e etc.

[@usherofsoulsxx212]

Great talk, I'm studying undergrad neuroanatomy and had not come across this simple yet vital phenomenon about the importance of cooked cook as having a direct linear correlation to energy absorbed ; which equates to an immediate cerebral delivery of glucose. In particular as highlighted the fact that humans have the highest number of neurons in the cerebral cortex. Fascinating stuff

[@eu29lex16]

So much pseudo-science, people's brains actually got smaller the more civilization developed, and this is a fact and it's right when cooking started to be more dominant. The bottom graph shows how brain size increased over the past 3 million years-especially. A large brain capable of processing new information was a big advantage during times of dramatic climate change. Anthropologists think that widespread cooking fires began when hearths first appeared 250 000 years ago, the human brain was growing long before that, for millions of years. So no, pseudo-science aside, proof only suggests that the brain started to become bigger before cooking was even a thing.

[@subrahmanyamvemuri5881]

Wonderful Analysis. Thanks for the research :)

[@gessuilucenaribeiro5708]

Suzana, és incrível!👏👏👏👏👏👏

Eu sou fã desta neurocientista!

[@fabioolmos4731]

me too

[@mateusrenon8745]

Suzana come to Brazil

[@pedroaboffa]

Fato

[@zrui776]

This is a great talk, I've learned so much

[@Lipe48]

Quem mais veio até aqui após o Eslen falar da descoberta sobre os neurônios que ela fez? Well done Suzana, the Earth needs more people like you. Keep doing what you do best. Thank you

[@matthewmanetti8560]

did cooking give us a big brain or did a big brain give us cooking?

[@Dr0iRedX]

After the discovery of fire and the invention of cooking our primate brains grew to become so large so fast in evolution

[@GuillhermeFG]

after the invention of cooking, individuals with bigger brains were allowed to succed.

[@poisonouspaul6128]

lmao

[@Fachaman7]

did you even watch the video

[@Boog1137]

Cooking gave us a big brain RELATIVE TO PRIMATES, but since we are primates we already had an advanced brain RELATIVE TO OTHER MAMMALS. This is what the idiots on this comment thread fail to understand.

[@statenationalsunitedb218]

She didn't convince me. The energy equation is missing the energy that comes from other sources than food. The number of neurons determines the number of possible connections that can be made, the number of possible scenarios that can be considered and chosen from. It's the difference between a yes and no question and multiple choice question with many choices.

[@jutjub22]

What is other source of energy than food?

[@deborahdean8867]

Also its important to know that the cerebellum has more neurons than the cerebrum. So why isnt it concious? More neurons must not necessarily mean more awareness or consciousness, but the cerebellum MAY be able to 'learn' more than the cerebrum, it's just unconscious . But we also know many neurons are needed to maintain function, not expand it, if the organism is large and complex.

[@satishkumarperumal]

Wow! That was a stunning talk!!!

[@Ani-gg9oc]

one of the best video , thank you.

[@e.o.pereira]

Fantastic talk! I love how you can hear her "carioca" accent even when she's speaking in English lol

[@xender6969]

She literally melting brains after melting a real brain 😂

[@miguelalexandresimoesneves8660]

I was lookjng for thks answer for a long time! !! thank u!!

[@kellielazarr8063]

That was a great presentation!

[@sciencelover5847]

I love her lecture. Love from Bangladesh Mam😊💖

[@RodneyWilder]

Definitely an extremely interesting video and line of thought. Makes sense to me, now who wants to go for a cheeseburger then sit on the couch for 12 hours :-D

[@HashGray]

This is one of the most edifying video I've seen on the Internet in a while.

[@taniadutrapaleobotanica]

Excelent! Smart hipothesis and good analysis of it reazon. Congratulations to the research!

[@jc8tube]

My daughter asks, "What will happen if we start feeding apes cooked food?" She is 8 yrs old. The idea freak her out if apes start talking to us so please don't feed apes cooked food... That's her advice :

[@devinreyes1074]

If you feed her cooked food it's too late

[@J0ZZE123]

Lol.

[@soumojitguhamajumder3143]

It would take millions of years for that to evolve. But if for millions of years we feed apes cooked food, apes might evolve into different beings.

[@isaacnewton7424]

@@devinreyes1074 god

[@TomboiTravels]

Feed the apes, get them talking; we could use their advice.

[@unvergebeneid]

Reader's Digest version of the talk: Herculano-Houzel for the first time found a way to efficiently count the number of neurons in the brains of different species. She found that the correlation between body size and brain size stems from larger neurons, not more neurons and humans have the brain with the largest number of neurons in the animal kingdom. She also goes briefly into other people's research (without telling anyone of course; it's a TED talk) about how cooking was the key to enable the necessary energy intake for our brain. Now you know it all and can skip a very confusing and weirdly paced talk that is full of logical errors.

[@Fachaman7]

THIS IS FALSE: humans have the brain with the largest number of neurons in the animal kingdom

[@llamalaverne994]

In your opinion, What are some of the logical errors?

[@unvergebeneid]

@@llamalaverne994 dude, my comment is six years old! Obviously I don't remember and I'm not going to rewatch this talk that I evidently abhorred just to humor you. Also, it's usually extremely complex to explain these things in comments. It would be much easier to have like a running commentary explaining the errors while they are being made.

[@PaulSmith-wz2xv]

This presentation is absolutely remarkable.

[@manjetikarunakar6736]

The way u explained is awesome

[@FreeFromWar]

This is a brilliant study! Although I've read many times on how discovery of fire and cooking gave us bigger brains, I feel like I have a much clearer understanding as to why that is after watching this video.

[@TopperPenquin]

Exactly, take the power out of the hands of Predator's

[@Bankside1997]

If cooking allowed humans to have bigger brains per body size, how was it in the first place that we came up with the idea of cooking? Did we started cooking by accident? Don't think so. Fire had to happen first. You can say that our brains got bigger because of fire and then cooking but mostly fire. But before fire there had to be primitive tools like rocks and sticks to make fire, so again, one can say that our brain was able to grow thanks to primitive tools. But to use tools we needed opposable thumbs, that is what allowed our brains to grow bigger. But we are not the only mammals with opposable thumbs. So what really allowed our brains to have more neurons? I do not know why, but cooking seems to be only one of the last contributing factors.

[@MadBrainBox]

I agree with you on that.We live in a very complex Universe after all.Maybe the scientists will find the answer to that question during our lifetime.I can only hope so.

[@AleksandrKramarenko]

Well, evolution is basically all about chance. Various elements simply happened and came together over time, allowing us to have thumbs, create tools, fire, and cook, etc, etc. I don't think we will ever find out how it all exactly started and got triggered because it happened so long ago. But I suppose you could be right that fire must've been invented first, which means there must've been some sort of tool to create the fire. So while cooking might've enabled the brains to grow larger and larger, it's the tools (and everything that goes with it) that started it all. What I personally think is that there's a high chance that a long time ago, a bunch of primates happened to live in an area where there was an abundance of high quality food, allowing the brains to grow large enough that they got smart enough to create tools, fire, and then eventually start cooking. After that, the brain could grow even larger. But that's just a wild guess.

[@nanao1726]

Intriguing questions ... It could also be that fire happened by chance - as it can happen in nature [forest fires, volcanoes, lightning striking some dry patches of land etc] - & then it may have burned down/cooked some animals, plants, vegetables fruits etc, which some homo erectus must've come across, eaten & was like 'whoa, fire makes this raw stuff taste better' or something... SOMETHING, I dunno But yeah, after such a chance happening, we might have gone on to TRY to make fire to cook or something ... trying out tools like stones etc as you said ... & then by doing that over & over over & over we became more & more human as we are now .... We live in a mighty complex Universe & it's awesome to be witness it & be a part of it for however long we're here : ]

[@shaderbytes]

Sascha Kramarenko Things dont just happen and come together over time.. you have become self deluded. There's none so blind as those who will not see! Open your eyes and you will see the glory of God in his creation.

[@MadBrainBox]

ian pretorius Lord Cthulhu will forgive you for not using his name this time.But be careful.Next time he'll just eat you for this transgression.

[@milharejo]

Excelent lecture!

[@Alwaysdoubt100]

As a Brazilian myself, I am very proud of this woman. She is amazing!

[@pavelsapehin4308]

I'm not sure how far this is widespread, but it may be one of the most important discoveries of 21 century.

[@veryconfused9768]

Soooo true

[@omarcosve]

eeh no

[@deborahdean8867]

We're so smart we figured out fire and cooking which gave us more calories and nutrients, but how is it we were smart enough to figure out fire in the first place, but no other primates could?

[@NilanjanaLodh]

she wowed me :D one of my fav ted talks ! :)

[@BarbaraBellinibabel]

wonderful speech, thanks!

[@RichardKoenigsberg]

SHE IS GREAT! So good, so clear.

[@lucasdefb12]

This talk inspires me! I watched this one when I was in the High School (she is from Brazil, and talked about it in a event that I participated called FEBRAT). She is awesome!!!!

[@Music_Creativity_Science]

It's actually the use/control of higher forms of energy which made us modern humans, the fire + cooking is just one initial important start/part of that process. Modern civilized mankind is evolving into a force/transformer in the solar system, we're not just an advanced animal anymore, and not primarily a "mathematical robot" either. Modern mankind as a species has a much higher goal/potential than to survive 0.003 of the time the sun will shine, which is the average for mammal species. Our goal should be set to 0.1 or something like that, maybe 1000 times longer than the average. Our ongoing intellectual evolution separates us more and more from animals (which stop evolving at a certain point), we are meant to come together and fight severe coming ice ages, deflect/destroy asteroids/comets with nuclear energy, etc etc. The big difference is our future thinking, animals can just react to what happens in the solar system, we can make plans and then fight against it as a force, and therefore also save many animal species from extinction in the future. The solar system is not a sustainable system, the principle is learning to survive in an unsustainable (always naturally changing) system, which only humans can do.

[@suzanalima4722]

Human arrogance. We will destroy the planet before these fairy tale.

[@alanarcher5954]

What in the world do you mean by "our goal should be to survive .003 if the life of the sun?" .003 of the life of the sun comes out to 1.5 B years. What? And what do you mean by "we are meant to come together"? "Meant to", implies it was designed by an outside force, as in "I made dinner and gave it to you because I meant for you to eat it" Who is it that "means for us" to come together and destroy incoming asteroids and live for a billion years?

[@giulianopedersoli2477]

Alan Archer The All

[@boggers]

@@alanarcher5954 Your ancestors, that's who. The goal of all life is to pass on its genetic code via procreation. When that ceases to be the goal, the individual or species ceases to be part of life. You infer he is speaking of some higher power, but that is your mistake. Simple extrapolation from an individual's goals to a species level gives the same result.

[@peadardon]

Brilliant thank you,Suzana

[@renzorodrigues3936]

Além de ser uma tremenda cientista , tem um inglês maravilhoso .

[@mickobrien3156]

She's very good. That was short and right to the point and she didn't waste time trying to be cute and funny, as too many TED speakers do. Well done!

[@saiyaniam]

I wonder if this is true, that in the future our pets will be smarter because of the food we give them.

[@antoniobortoni]

Or we get dumber because of process food that is full of drugs and not nutrients.

[@harmonicanoobs6123]

lovely study. Really enjoyed it

[@mosquito525]

This is interesting. A simple answer to a big question, and so persuasive.

[@artyhedgehog]

"If you're so smart, why aren't you in the kitchen?"

[@thisisntallowed9560]

Thanks for the quotes XDD

[@qassamrabi4719]

I didn't need your stupid talk to know I'm not special (cries while on the toilet)

[@Renanbmx123]

hahahaha

[@deepakjose9889]

Simply amazing!.

[@KSangel180]

That was beautiful! What a good speech! :)

[@NinanSajeethPhilip]

Very interesting! 1. But does this say that "all intelligent people will be skinny?!" Should do an investigation!! 2. Will animals that eat cooked food (pets) be more intelligent than their relatives living on raw food?

[@brenda71991]

+Ninan Sajeeth Philip This is why I have been thinking (and observing), a lot of really smart people are rather skinny !! I try to look for some articles, but (according to the articles) there is no correlation between intelligence and body size

[@Nilushka1998]

BreakThatReplayButton I believe that intelligent people are skinny because they are smart enough to know that being overweight is not good for your health XD.

[@omarcosve]

1. yes, bully fat people

[@constantinosmarcunikandrou9003]

"cooking led to big brain" and then "big brain invented cooking" So again we have the chicken or the egg!

[@lostathenian1836]

Exactly! Circular logic. I disagree with her because of that point (and others, but that is the most blatant one).

[@guilhermevinhoza7411]

There's a study that explains how psycho active substances found by our ancestors in the nature helped them to do things they wouldn't do in their sober state. So maybe a high ape decided to eat carbonized meat from a fire caused by a thunderstorm and here we are.

[@constantinosmarcunikandrou9003]

@@guilhermevinhoza7411 So an ape ate some mushrooms or anything else psycho active, and got high, and ate something that usually wouldnt eat. But why not a monkey or gorilla or a himpanje, cause they had similar diet and were living in similar areas, so they could also get high, and if this would had happen now we would have different kind of sapien species, or maybe black yellow white and brown humans are coming from different animal got high?

[@paisleigh1989]

@@lostathenian1836 however cooking is a word - cooking didn't lead to a big brain - cooked food did and cooked food can result from simply an accidental fire and a poor animal that our ancestors ate out of necessity - the word cooking and therefore the process of actively using fire or electronic means came later - first it was passive then we became active

[@supernewuser]

Very powerful talk.

[@dralihussain]

Thank you very much

[@korgond]

Our brains are 1,5 kgs and have 86 billions of neurones. There is no any other example of this kind of brain in the nature. For instance, the brain of elephants are 5 kgs but don't have as much neurones as we have. So, the human brain is special, Mrs. Herculano.

[@jamiecoxe7327]

Great video. The questions I have now are: how did primitive primates figure out cooking when our brains had the same amount of neurons as other primates? Also, why did our brain stop growing? We now can consum enough calories to support large bodies and brains. I still feel that something is missing.

[@pranavsingh6395]

A theory could be that they didn't really FIGURE out cooking... I mean couldn't it be possible that some food was randomly/accidentally put in the newly discovered fire and when the primitive humans tasted it they found it better so they started eating it

[@deborahdean8867]

@@pranavsingh6395 it could be, but it would be odd were the only primate that happened to. Not like we could hide fire from other animals if that's how we discovered cooking. Cows, elephants all have to digest cellulose, why didnt they get the idea to crush it with their feet instead of chewing a cud? Etc.

[@VertigaDesignMEDIA]

Really fantastic and it makes alot of sense.

[@tharsisgabryel2031]

So proud of this amazing brazilian scientist! An incredible professional!

[@pablock0]

É BR!

[@nataliagarfias6878]

Our dogs eat processed food. Is that considered cooking? Are we making them smarter?

[@sashx05]

Natalia Garfias lol nice one, hmm?

[@brenda71991]

+Natalia Garfias I guess we won't know until a couple of millions of years

[@anainesgp]

They are not primates, and maybe you are giving them more energy but not more intelligence!

[@advancemankind6091]

very amazing explanation

[@Edpsyman]

Probably the most stimulating video on Ted. I felt the need to applause to my laptop.

[@olly_evans]

So if we fed Gorillas cooked food for thousands of years we could evolve a super-hot primate

[@thomashan4963]

It's not about eating cooked food, it's about cooking food

[@Volound]

how accepted is this by mainstream science? ive heard this propounded since i was like 10 years old and ive heard counter arguments from the skeptics since. is this just a hypothesis or is it actually solid?

[@xxGLhrMxx]

Skepticism towrads what exactly?

[@xxGLhrMxx]

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=evolving-bigger-brains-th

[@Volound]

towards the hypothesis presented in the video we are commenting on.

[@xxGLhrMxx]

she explains more than one thing in the video. If you're referring to the cooking hypothesis, the SciAm article I've just posted should help

[@Volound]

Guilherme C. scientific american is a popular science magazine for the public. like all science magazines, it has a track record of publishing things that are sensationalistic or just plain bullshit (like ted talks on occasion). if you have a link to a peer reviewed scientific journal where she has a paper accepted, that would be more along the lines of what i was asking about. theres only really a single thesis/conclusion/contention in the video. i know she explains more than one thing. she thinks cooking is the unique ability that allows the evolution of the unique human brain.

[@dhoffmann3624]

Very important findings!

[@user-zk8ii8mk4s]

Woooow!! Thank you very much

[@nathakash2402]

We are able to see this talk just b'coz we ate cooked foods. That's hilarious !!!

[@MrUnladenswallow]

This is interesting but i would be very wary of taking this on board without a pinch of salt. The remarkable cognitive engineering of the brain is much more than our sheer number of neurons. I am going to take the easy route here and ask how did we invent cooking if we did not possess the mental capacity to invent it. Having more neurons does not make us more intelligent. If everyone on the planet suddenly stopped eating cooked food you would not see a decrease in cognitive function that is just ridiculous. Food out the window, you can look at a graph like in this video and describe any number of conclusions.

[@hamboon]

don't forget about time. we're not talking about one or two lifetimes here but many.

[@Drudenfusz]

"I am going to take the easy route here and ask how did we invent cooking if we did not possess the mental capacity to invent it." Because cooking is not rocket science. It basically just requires that one has no fear of fire and then eats something that gots burned and recognises that it leads faster to energy doing other activities. "If everyone on the planet suddenly stopped eating cooked food you would not see a decrease in cognitive function that is just ridiculous." Yes, that is right, but you would see pretty fast people more time spending on eating and more thoughts spend on that, and thus a drop in scientifically or technological progress, since many would have concentartion issues.

[@tommyfootin1586]

Drudenfusz you're right.i ponder on that as well but still got no clue

[@ArpitAgarwal1]

great presentation!

[@mdsabbirhossain5249]

She was a amazing and style of her speech was outstanding 👍👌

[@feliperamedeiros]

Suzana é carioca? Os 'sh' são bem presentes no seu sotaque inglês!

[@LuisEduardo-vq4fm]

Sim, carioquíssima. Um dos motivos dela ter adiado sair do Brasil pra lecionar nos EUA, foi o amor pelo RJ.

[@GRiMHOLDx]

Order me a bucket of KFC!!! I'm feeling hungry tonightaaah!

[@williamhoward2731]

I wish to thank you for sharing this awesome video with me .

[@livisda]

I think one of the most important aspects that she either is not aware of or might have forgotten is that humans generally are eating a lot more varieties of foods than any other animal or primate on earth. Our digestive system is also capable of handling a huge variety of diets which most primates cannot to say the least. So this may be even more of a factor than cooking food. If your body can only handle a specific diet, you can cook it all you want and still it won't get you the right nutrients and vitamins necessary for more complex functions.

[@livisda]

To finish off, we first adapted to eating a wider variety of raw diets which in turn gave us more cognitive abilities, cooking being one of them. However, cooking could not have been the missing part of the puzzle since there are vegans which do much better on natural and uncooked products, It seems more plausible that the key was adaptation to a wide variety of diets which gives the body more nutrients and the necessary energy for a complex brain rather than cooked food. Besides, cooking food denatures many enzymes, impairing their functions which brings little benefits to the body in the long run, cancer growth being enhanced by fried and cooked foods!

[@deborahdean8867]

Yes, you're right. We can eat raw meat . Fire is more important in digesting vegetable matter because it needs more breaking down, complete simple proteins are immediately available for use.