This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The human brain accounts for roughly 2% of total body weight but uses approximately 20% of our body's energy. Relative to our body size, human brains are much larger than those of other mammals and take a lot of energy to keep humans going.
The evolution of our unusually large "social brain" is thought to have given us advanced intelligence and enabled the formation of large, complex societies. Research from Boston University now suggests that this brain metabolic functioning may not be unique to humans. Researchers studied pavement ants and found that their brains account for about 5% of body weight while consuming roughly one-quarter of total body energy—almost the same energetic relationship seen in humans and other mammals.
When ants were malnourished, their bodies dramatically reduced energy use while their brains continued operating at nearly full capacity. The study results are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings suggest that protecting the brain during times of stress may be a deeply conserved feature of evolution rather than a uniquely human adaptation.
The research demonstrates that ant brains, like human brains, require a disproportionate amount of energy for workers to perform their social behaviors. To learn more about this work, first author Dr. Zachary Coto, a member of BU's Traniello Lab, answered questions about this study looking at brain size and energy demands.
Understanding brain evolution in animals that live in complex societies has been a key research area for decades and has generated much controversy. How does social life influence brain size and the energetic cost of its functions? Our research integrates sociobiology and evolutionary neurobiology to focus on how social life influences brain evolution.
Questions of brain size evolution must be addressed with integrated studies of the energetic cost of brain tissue, which is metabolically expensive. We have a limited understanding of how brains of any size and of any animal generate complex social behavior. Humans and ants provide an interesting comparison that is particularly compelling because ant brains are so small and both ants and humans are so social.
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