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.

[kaze]

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)

[srimansrini]

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

[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.

[caiolira]

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.

[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.

[jimeffinger]

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

[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!

[evelinsantos]

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 !

[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!

[Mr_BenPrime]

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

[renno]

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!

[nsfa]

Fantastic! Great study and great explanation. Congratulations!

[edithkapcari]

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!!!

[jctube]

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 :

[statenationalsunitedb]

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.

[matthewmanetti]

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

[luanabatista]

A melhor descoberta do dia! Que mulher incrível. Que palestra maravilhosa. <3
E fico ainda mais feliz por ela ser bióloga!

[shirleybatista]

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