Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Kuzawa, Christopher W.
• Chugani, Harry T.
• Grossman, Lawrence I.
• Lipovich, Leonard
• Muzik, Otto
• Hof, Patrick R.
• Wildman, Derek E.
• Sherwood, Chet C.
• Leonard, William R.
• Lange, Nicholas

Titel

Metabolic costs and evolutionary implications of human brain development

Ist Teil von

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS, 2014-09, Vol.111 (36), p.13010-13015

Ort / Verlag

United States: National Academy of Sciences

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Significance The metabolic costs of brain development are thought to explain the evolution of humans’ exceptionally slow and protracted childhood growth; however, the costs of the human brain during development are unknown. We used existing PET and MRI data to calculate brain glucose use from birth to adulthood. We find that the brain’s metabolic requirements peak in childhood, when it uses glucose at a rate equivalent to 66% of the body’s resting metabolism and 43% of the body’s daily energy requirement, and that brain glucose demand relates inversely to body growth from infancy to puberty. Our findings support the hypothesis that the unusually high costs of human brain development require a compensatory slowing of childhood body growth.