Brain cells normally respond adaptively to bioenergetic challenges resulting from ongoing
activity in neuronal circuits, and from environmental energetic stressors such as food …

The nervous system—in particular, the brain and its cognitive abilities—is among humans'
most distinctive and impressive attributes. How the nervous system has changed in the …

The social brain hypothesis posits that social complexity is the primary driver of primate
cognitive complexity, and that social pressures ultimately led to the evolution of the large …

In comparison to other species, the human brain exhibits one of the highest energy
demands relative to body metabolism. It remains unclear whether this heightened energy …

The challenge of studying human cognitive evolution is identifying unique features of our
intelligence while explaining the processes by which they arose. Comparisons with …

How have animals managed to maintain metabolically expensive brains given the volatile
and fleeting availability of calories in the natural world? Here we review studies in support of …

Adipose tissue is necessary to harbor energy. To handle excess energy, adipose tissue
expands by increasing adipocyte size (hypertrophy) and number (hyperplasia). Here, we …

A systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the
trajectories of empires and civilizations. Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit …

Human brain size nearly quadrupled in the six million years since Homo last shared a
common ancestor with chimpanzees, but human brains are thought to have decreased in …

The brain is one of the most energy-consuming organs in the body. Satisfying such energy
demand requires compartmentalized, cell-specific metabolic processes, known to be …