Cranial Blood Flow in Early Hominids

早期原始人类的颅血流量

• 批准号: 9008179
• 负责人: Dean Falk
• 金额: $ 3.43万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Albany
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1990
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1990-08-01 至 1993-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9008179&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Cranial; Blood; Flow; Early; Hominids

The manner and mechanisms by which the human brain has developed its enormous relative size and intricate mode of patterning is one of the most fundamental questions in physical anthropology. Traditionally, the brain was thought to have first enlarged in response to, and concomitantly with, earliest human tool fabrication. It is now known, however, that human tools show up in the fossil record long before brain enlargement, and other theories have subsequently been offered to explain this uniquely human characteristic. This investigator explains brain enlargement as an indirect result of changes in cerebral blood flow and seeks to test two related hypotheses about the pattern of blood flow in hominoids. These hypotheses can be tested by examination of the interior of skulls, because the pattern of meningeal blood vessels provides an indelible imprint on the interior of the skull. The first hypothesis is that the branching pattern of middle meningeal blood vessels distinguishes between the two types of australopithecine fossil. The second is that a "strong" branching pattern correlates with larger cranial capacity. The latter hypothesis will be tested on a large number of human and ape skulls to determine the nature of the correlation between cranial capacity and blood vessel branching pattern in higher primates including humans. The research will provide further evidence regarding the "radiator" theory of brain enlargement, whereby bigger brains are claimed to be characterized by a more complicated network of vessels than smaller brains.

人类大脑的运作方式和机制 发展出巨大的相对规模和复杂的 模式化是物理学中最基本的问题之一 人类学 传统上，人们认为大脑首先 与早期人类的反应和伴随有关， 工具制造 然而，现在人们知道，人类的工具 早在大脑扩大之前就出现在化石记录中， 后来又提出了其他理论来解释这一点 独特的人类特征。 这位调查员解释说， 由于脑血变化的间接结果而增大 流，并试图测试两个相关的假设模式 原始人类的血液流动。 这些假设可以通过 头骨内部的检查，因为 脑膜血管提供了不可磨灭的印记， 头骨内部 第一个假设是， 脑膜中血管的分支模式 两种南方古猿化石之间的区别 二是 一个“强”的分支模式与更大的颅骨 容量 后一种假设将在大量数据上得到检验 人类和猿类的头骨来确定 颅容量与血管分支的相关性 包括人类在内的高等灵长类动物的模式。 这项研究将 为大脑的“辐射体”理论提供了进一步的证据 扩大，由此更大的大脑被声称是 其特点是船只的网络比 更小的大脑