4 ms·

A couple possible reasons: surviving to hunt, fighting/battle and celebration/training/building activities. If you have an elevated heart rate and exercising i

A couple possible reasons: surviving to hunt, fighting/battle and celebration/training/building activities. If you have an elevated heart rate and exercising in the past that might mean going after food where you have to outwit, thus the brain needed to fuel/prepare for that. Additionally, exercise could be fighting, you might also need elevated brain performance during a battle for survival. It might also mean you are doing some work to get a system in place for food and providing that for others in the group. Exercising is probably tied to survival, nourishment and providing. The brain probably has a reward system because it can expend more energy if there is more to be had soon.

mywittyname 10y ago
Also, you're probably learning during that time. Think about how young animals play: they practice a lot of the skills they need to survive. It builds dexterity, coordination, reflexes and strength. Evolutionary speaking, those animals whose brains go into "extra learning mode" during exercise likely had a huge advantage over their peers whose brains didn't. Their brains picked up on skills related to hunting and survival and didn't waste energy building neural connections while they're sitting around not doing anything.
- searine 10y ago
  You two are wildly speculating. The fact is that none of this greatly influences reproductive fitness, so it is unlikely to be acted on by evolution. The effect is likely just biochemical coincidence. Repair enzymes in one part of the body effecting another.
  - nazgul17 10y ago
    I agree that it is speculation, but the evolutionary advantage is pretty clear there: getting extra learning during fights increases your chances of survival in the next fight.
    - searine 10y ago
      1. You are assuming brain health means learning. 2. You are assuming fights exert the same effect as exercise. 3. You are assuming the selection pressure is great enough to effect allele frequency. 4. You are assuming humans fight alone. 5. You are assuming humans have extra knowledge to be gained in a split second of a fight. 6. You are assuming said extra knowledge would be overwhelmingly adaptive in a physical fight. Breaking down adaptation is all about understanding your assumptions. It is easy to speculate, but it is hard measure evolution. However, given rigorous study we can measure adaptation mathematically and quantify it's impacts.
  - mywittyname 10y ago
    The evolutionary reasoning behind almost any trait is going to be entirely speculative. > The fact is that none of this greatly influences reproductive fitness, so it is unlikely to be acted on by evolution. It absolutely does, in fact, it's probably a key influence of reproductive fitness in predatory species. The species that can gather more energy or more efficiently use that energy is going to out-grow their peers more each successive generation. And it's easy to see the relationship between more efficient learning and gathering more food. A group of hunting animals that learn 10% faster during and after exercising than a control group would have a huge resource advantage because they increases both the pool of available prey and the likelihood of catching prey. Acquiring just 7% more calories (and translating that into 7% more offspring) would result in a population that is double the control group in 10 generations.

mywittyname 10y ago

Also, you're probably learning during that time. Think about how young animals play: they practice a lot of the skills they need to survive. It builds dexterity, coordination, reflexes and strength. Evolutionary speaking, those animals whose brains go into "extra learning mode" during exercise likely had a huge advantage over their peers whose brains didn't. Their brains picked up on skills related to hunting and survival and didn't waste energy building neural connections while they're sitting around not doing anything.

searine 10y ago
You two are wildly speculating. The fact is that none of this greatly influences reproductive fitness, so it is unlikely to be acted on by evolution. The effect is likely just biochemical coincidence. Repair enzymes in one part of the body effecting another.
- nazgul17 10y ago
  I agree that it is speculation, but the evolutionary advantage is pretty clear there: getting extra learning during fights increases your chances of survival in the next fight.
  - searine 10y ago
    1. You are assuming brain health means learning. 2. You are assuming fights exert the same effect as exercise. 3. You are assuming the selection pressure is great enough to effect allele frequency. 4. You are assuming humans fight alone. 5. You are assuming humans have extra knowledge to be gained in a split second of a fight. 6. You are assuming said extra knowledge would be overwhelmingly adaptive in a physical fight. Breaking down adaptation is all about understanding your assumptions. It is easy to speculate, but it is hard measure evolution. However, given rigorous study we can measure adaptation mathematically and quantify it's impacts.
- mywittyname 10y ago
  The evolutionary reasoning behind almost any trait is going to be entirely speculative. > The fact is that none of this greatly influences reproductive fitness, so it is unlikely to be acted on by evolution. It absolutely does, in fact, it's probably a key influence of reproductive fitness in predatory species. The species that can gather more energy or more efficiently use that energy is going to out-grow their peers more each successive generation. And it's easy to see the relationship between more efficient learning and gathering more food. A group of hunting animals that learn 10% faster during and after exercising than a control group would have a huge resource advantage because they increases both the pool of available prey and the likelihood of catching prey. Acquiring just 7% more calories (and translating that into 7% more offspring) would result in a population that is double the control group in 10 generations.