What makes us smarter than other animals?

New research comparing information processing in the brains of humans and non-human primates may explain why there's no chimpanzee Shakespeare.

The key to human superior intelligence may be how our brain processes information. Source: Eric Kilby via Flickr.com

There is something about the human brain that allows us to perform feats of intelligence unmatched by any other life form on this planet. When it comes to brain power, we leave even crows, toothed whales, and chimpanzees - considered the smartest among the non-human animals - in the dust. But what aspect of the human brain grants us these mental powers still mystifies neuroscientists.

Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge may have pinpointed the secret to our superior intelligence. They suggest that it may not, as many believe, be rooted primarily in our brain’s overall size. After all, whale brains, for example, are much larger than ours, yet there's not a single piece of poetry authored by a whale. Instead, they say, the human brain appears to be unique in how its functionally distinct areas communicate with each other.

Using brain imaging, the team compared the information flow across different brain areas between humans and several non-human primates, including chimpanzees. They found that in humans, areas responsible for higher-order cognitive functions, like consciousness or problem solving, use a more variable type of information processing - one that integrates information received from other brain areas - than the same areas in non-human primates do. They call this type of processing synergy.

In contrast, brain areas responsible for processing primary sensory and movement information are characterised by less variable and more straightforward information processing in both humans and non-human primates.

Synergistic information processing provides neural networks with the capacity to adapt their output to experiences. The team proposes that the evolutionary size increase of brain areas that are primarily governed by synergistic information processing, for example the prefrontal cortex, facilitated the expansion of cognitive functions in our species.

Read the full story at The Conversation or find the original research published in the journal Nature Neuroscience here.