Runaway brain-culture coevolution as a reason for larger brains: Exploring the "cultural drive" hypothesis by computer modeling.

ABSTRACT: Scale and tempo of brain expansion in the course of human evolution implies that this process was driven by a positive feedback. The "cultural drive" hypothesis suggests a possible mechanism for the runaway brain-culture coevolution wherein high-fidelity social learning results in accumulation of cultural traditions which, in turn, promote selection for still more efficient social learning. Here we explore this evolutionary mechanism by means of computer modeling. Simulations confirm its plausibility in a social species in a socio-ecological situation that makes the sporadic invention of new beneficial and cognitively demanding behaviors possible. The chances for the runaway brain-culture coevolution increase when some of the culturally transmitted behaviors are individually beneficial whi

SUBMITTER: Markov AV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7319167 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature