Primate Brain Abilities

One of the most expensive organs in the human body is the brain. The physiological task of the brain includes receiving information from the rest of the body, deducing that information, and then guiding the body’s response to it. The brain also helps perform vital processes such as maintaining blood pressure, releasing hormones, and respiratory functions. For a while, many scientists thought that all mammalian brains (including the human brain) were made in the same way. Therefore, it is fair to say that if all brains were made in the same way, larger brains should have more neurons, and more cognitive ability. We often tend to think that humans have more cognitive ability in comparison to other primates; thus we must have a larger brain. However, the human brain is not the largest around and it …show more content…
Thus, perhaps this explains why scientists would think that the human brain must be special to explain cognitive abilities. If the human brain is not the largest, and all brains are not made in the same way, what is so special about the human brain? Are human brains unique? What does a human brain have or do that no other brain does? While researchers are trying to address these questions, scientists are still struggling to find evidence that distinguish the uniqueness of human brains from non-human primate brains. However, I strongly believe that the human brain is unique in some aspects such as human’s ability to learn a language and pass on cultural traditions, and become aware of our own thoughts through inner speech. There are also an increase in brain size and cognitive ability found among humans that may primarily be due to an increase in neuron number and may contribute to the distinctiveness of the human brain. For this reason, this paper will use several articles as evidence to identify ways in which human brains are