[ 고1 ]_11월 (2020)__[ 30번 ]

Anne 숑 · [고1] 2020 11월 [ 30번 ]

Recent research suggests that evolving humans’ relationship with dogs changed the structure of both species’ brains. One of the various physical changes caused by domestication is a reduction in the size of the brain: 16 percent for horses, 34 percent for pigs, and 10 to 30 percent for dogs.
This is because once humans started to take care of these animals, they no longer needed various brain functions in order to survive.
Animals who were fed and protected by humans did not need many of the skills required by their wild ancestors and lost the parts of the brain related to those capacities.
A similar process occurred for humans, who seem to have been domesticated by wolves.
About 10,000 years ago, when the role of dogs was firmly established in most human societies, the human brain also shrank by about 10 percent.