Modern civilisation’s fast pace causes human brain to dwarf

6 March 2010, 13:35

(Kazan, March 6, Tatar-inform). The modern civilisation's accelerated pace, the scientific and technical revolution going on over the past 350 years, general intensification and increased living rhythm have caused the human body's inability to adjust to the new living conditions. This is a conclusion made by the global science.

The modern human’s physical specifics, shaped over the 2.5million years of evolution, tend to be incompliant with the present-day reality and even complicate living, the Wall Street Journal Europe reads.

The special biological mechanism of preserving salt in the blood that in the distant past helped our ancestors survive for a long time without water, now, when it is available, causes a wide spread of cardio-vascular diseases, reports Ami-Tass.

According to the Harvard Professor Deirdre Barrett, the contemporary lifestyle and socio-legal system have come to contradict a basic human instinct of combating or escaping. It arose at the dawn of humanity, when people had to run, to save themselves from multiple dangers, or to fight, if the former was impossible. This resulted in a special biochemical mechanism activating all the body’s hormones and drastically increasing the adrenaline amount. The mechanism is not needed for the present-day daily living, which could cause unpredictable effects on a person’s physical and psychological condition, Professor Barrett warns.

Some leading global specialists have simultaneously warned that the present-day form of civilisation entails serious alterations in the human physical design. Over the past 5 thousand years, the size of human brain has gradually decreased. Over the time, it has lost up to 10 percent of its volume and continues to reduce. Scientists have not been able to explain the wonderful phenomenon of “shrinking”. Some suppose the brain, accounting for 2 percent of the human body’s weight but for 25 percent of the consumed energy, is looking for ways to save energy.
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