hair.
Then by four thousand years ago, someone in ancient Sumeria wrote the first love letter ever found, inscribed in cuneiform on a fist-sized piece of clay. Today it sits in the Museum of the Ancient Orient in Istanbul, Turkey, a postcard from the past. This person loved. He or she felt the same rapture that lovers felt a million years before.
The Human Capacity to Love
I once believed that Skipper, Maria, Tia, and the rest of the animals who have become enamored of their mating partners feel the same sensations that you and I feel when we fall in love. I reasoned that as our ancestors got smarter, humanity simply embroidered this animal magnetism with a host of cultural traditions and beliefs. I have changed my mind. What convinced me that the human experience of romantic love is far more complex—and more intense—is the impressive brain architecture that generates our intellect and feelings.
“The brain is my second favorite organ,” Woody Allen reportedly joked. Had Woody thought carefully about the abilities of the human brain, he might have made it number one. We are so much smarter, so much funnier, so much more mechanically adept, artistic, spiritual, inventive, altruistic—and sexy—than any other animal that if you could somehow combine all the mental capacities of all nonhuman creatures, they would not equal the capabilities of a seven-year-old human child.
I think the mental equipment that produces these human talents also creates in humanity a greater capacity for romantic love.
To begin with, the higher primates have larger brains than most mammals, relative to body size. The human cerebral cortex (the outer rind with which we do our thinking and recognize our feelings) is almost three times bigger than that of the apes—gorillas, chimps, and orangutans. 21 The human brain is heavier, too. The chimp brain weighs about one pound while the human brain weighs three. 22 And size counts. Paul M. Thompson of the University of California, Los Angeles, has shown that the number of gray cells in the frontal lobes is significantly linked to intelligence. 23
The human brain is also more complex. The number of nerve connections between specific brain regions has increased significantly over that of the apes. 24 We even have more genes to build and maintain the brain. Humans have about thirty-three thousand genes. About one-third of them construct and sustain brain functions. And although we don’t have many more genes than apes, just a few hundred extra can make a qualitative difference in how the brain operates because genes interact—exponentially increasing the number of possible combinations. Known as the “combinatorial explosion,” at some point our forebears acquired a few more genes and thus much more machinery to build and operate an elaborate brain. Some of our genes even work faster than those of our closest kin. 25
Not only is the human brain generally bigger and more complex, but almost all of its specific regions have expanded.
For example, the prefrontal cortex, the collection of brain parts that reside directly behind your forehead, is twice as large as that of other primates (see diagram here ). 26 It is more convoluted, too, 27 with a cortical folding that provides extra space for thinking. These regions are central to “general intelligence.” 28 Here we assemble facts, reason, weigh options, exercise forethought, generate insights, make decisions, solve problems, learn from experience, and plan ahead. We also add meaning and emotional value to our thoughts, assess our risks, and monitor the acquisition of rewards.
With this remarkable brain region, the prefrontal cortex, humans have infinitely more capacity to think about “him” or “her.”
Our human brains also enable us to feel intensely. Frankly, I have long thought that nature overdid it when it comes to human emotions. We “feel” too much. Now I know why. The human amygdala, an almond-shaped region on the side of
Then by four thousand years ago, someone in ancient Sumeria wrote the first love letter ever found, inscribed in cuneiform on a fist-sized piece of clay. Today it sits in the Museum of the Ancient Orient in Istanbul, Turkey, a postcard from the past. This person loved. He or she felt the same rapture that lovers felt a million years before.
The Human Capacity to Love
I once believed that Skipper, Maria, Tia, and the rest of the animals who have become enamored of their mating partners feel the same sensations that you and I feel when we fall in love. I reasoned that as our ancestors got smarter, humanity simply embroidered this animal magnetism with a host of cultural traditions and beliefs. I have changed my mind. What convinced me that the human experience of romantic love is far more complex—and more intense—is the impressive brain architecture that generates our intellect and feelings.
“The brain is my second favorite organ,” Woody Allen reportedly joked. Had Woody thought carefully about the abilities of the human brain, he might have made it number one. We are so much smarter, so much funnier, so much more mechanically adept, artistic, spiritual, inventive, altruistic—and sexy—than any other animal that if you could somehow combine all the mental capacities of all nonhuman creatures, they would not equal the capabilities of a seven-year-old human child.
I think the mental equipment that produces these human talents also creates in humanity a greater capacity for romantic love.
To begin with, the higher primates have larger brains than most mammals, relative to body size. The human cerebral cortex (the outer rind with which we do our thinking and recognize our feelings) is almost three times bigger than that of the apes—gorillas, chimps, and orangutans. 21 The human brain is heavier, too. The chimp brain weighs about one pound while the human brain weighs three. 22 And size counts. Paul M. Thompson of the University of California, Los Angeles, has shown that the number of gray cells in the frontal lobes is significantly linked to intelligence. 23
The human brain is also more complex. The number of nerve connections between specific brain regions has increased significantly over that of the apes. 24 We even have more genes to build and maintain the brain. Humans have about thirty-three thousand genes. About one-third of them construct and sustain brain functions. And although we don’t have many more genes than apes, just a few hundred extra can make a qualitative difference in how the brain operates because genes interact—exponentially increasing the number of possible combinations. Known as the “combinatorial explosion,” at some point our forebears acquired a few more genes and thus much more machinery to build and operate an elaborate brain. Some of our genes even work faster than those of our closest kin. 25
Not only is the human brain generally bigger and more complex, but almost all of its specific regions have expanded.
For example, the prefrontal cortex, the collection of brain parts that reside directly behind your forehead, is twice as large as that of other primates (see diagram here ). 26 It is more convoluted, too, 27 with a cortical folding that provides extra space for thinking. These regions are central to “general intelligence.” 28 Here we assemble facts, reason, weigh options, exercise forethought, generate insights, make decisions, solve problems, learn from experience, and plan ahead. We also add meaning and emotional value to our thoughts, assess our risks, and monitor the acquisition of rewards.
With this remarkable brain region, the prefrontal cortex, humans have infinitely more capacity to think about “him” or “her.”
Our human brains also enable us to feel intensely. Frankly, I have long thought that nature overdid it when it comes to human emotions. We “feel” too much. Now I know why. The human amygdala, an almond-shaped region on the side of
Similar Books
Shelter for Adeline
Susan Stoker
The Raw Shark Texts
Steven Hall
Protective Custody
Wynter Daniels
The Billionaire Boyfriend Trap
Kendra Little
Hurricane House
Sandy Semerad
Diamonds and Toads: A Modern Fairy Tale
K.E. Saxon
Men in Space
Tom McCarthy
Sincerely, Willis Wayde
John P. Marquand
Sarasota Dreams
Debby Mayne
Soul Mates Bind
Sandra Ross