Great apes display relatively high thermic values along this regions, with gorillas showing larger thermal loads than orangutans or chimpanzees. Our results show that brain size relates to general differences in the heat dissipation patterns among species, while thermic mapping evidence discrete differences localized on the parietal lobes, the temporal lobes and the motor cortex.
Searching for morphological correlates of brain metabolism, we performed numerical simulations to describe and to quantify the heat dissipation patterns within the brain volume as a function of the endocranial geometry in a comparative dataset of living and extinct hominoids. Since brain size is constrained by the ability of an organism to efficiently remove the heat produced by neural metabolism, it has been proposed that brain size increase in humans was possible due to the coevolution of a complex vascular system able to efficiently dissipate heat. From an evolutionary perspective, when compared with other primates the human brain is not only bigger but it also consumes a larger amount of energy. Maintaining a constant temperature of the brain is a critical issue as slight variations in cerebral temperature may cause irreversible neural damage or even cause death of the individual.
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