8/29/25 Suzana Herculano- Houzel: A supply-limited framework of brain function accounts for the evolution of endothermic brains
Neuroscience brown bag
Associate Professor of Psychology
Date: Friday, August 29, 2025
Time: 1:25- 2:15pm
Location: 316 Wilson Hall
A supply-limited framework of brain function accounts for the evolution of endothermic brains
Mammals and birds, the endothermic vertebrates, have distinctly bigger brains for their body size that are also characterized by an enlarged cerebellum (not a relatively bigger cerebral cortex!) compared to reptiles, at the same time as their endothermic brains differ in key ways from each other. How did they come to be that way? So far, no integrated theory accounts for the diagnostic features of endothermic brains, much less for how they evolved. This talk presents a novel theory that explains how the increased oxidative capacity at the origin of both mammals and birds could have sufficed to cause all of the main features of endothermic brains, including endothermy itself, without any recourse to adaptive arguments or selective advantages, simply by considering that brains, and bodies, will grow and function to the extent that they can, given the physical constraints and energetic opportunities available.