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. 2014 Sep 30:8:152.
doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2014.00152. eCollection 2014.

"Messing with the mind": evolutionary challenges to human brain augmentation

Arthur Saniotis  1 , Maciej Henneberg  1 , Jaliya Kumaratilake  2 , James P Grantham  2
Affiliations

"Messing with the mind": evolutionary challenges to human brain augmentation

Arthur Saniotis et al. Front Syst Neurosci. .

Abstract

The issue of brain augmentation has received considerable scientific attention over the last two decades. A key factor to brain augmentation that has been widely overlooked are the complex evolutionary processes which have taken place in evolving the human brain to its current state of functioning. Like other bodily organs, the human brain has been subject to the forces of biological adaptation. The structure and function of the brain, is very complex and only now we are beginning to understand some of the basic concepts of cognition. Therefore, this article proposes that brain-machine interfacing and nootropics are not going to produce "augmented" brains because we do not understand enough about how evolutionary pressures have informed the neural networks which support human cognitive faculties.

Keywords: brain size; brain-machine interfaces; hominin brain; memory formation; nootropic agents.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Average brain diameters (a cubic root of endocranial capacity) and estimated body weights of hominids expressed as percentages of anatomically modern human averages. Data from De Miguel and Henneberg (2001) and Mathers and Henneberg supplemented with newer finds. Numbers in brackets are numbers of individual estimates taken into account.
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