Spatial adaptations for plant foraging: women excel and calories count.
We present evidence for an evolved sexually dimorphic adaptation that activates spatial memory and navigation skills in response to fruits, vegetables and other traditionally gatherable sessile food resources. In spite of extensive evidence for a male advantage on a wide variety of navigational tasks, we demonstrate that a simple but ecologically important shift in content can reverse this sex difference. This effect is predicted by and consistent with the theory that a sexual division in ancestral foraging labour selected for gathering-specific spatial mechanisms, some of which are sexually differentiated. The hypothesis that gathering-specific spatial adaptations exist in the human mind is further supported by our finding that spatial memory is preferentially engaged for resources with higher nutritional quality (e.g. caloric density). This result strongly suggests that the underlying mechanisms evolved in part as adaptations for efficient foraging. Together, these results demonstrate that human spatial cognition is content sensitive, domain specific and designed by natural selection to mesh with important regularities of the ancestral world.
New
Joshua
J
Department of Psychology, Yale University, 2 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520-8205, USA. joshua.new@yale.edu
Krasnow
Max M
MM
Truxaw
Danielle
D
Gaulin
Steven J C
SJ
D000328:Adult; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000502:physiology*
Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 1998 Apr;6(4):351-60
9593991
Behav Neurosci. 2002 Jun;116(3):403-10
12049321
Percept Mot Skills. 2001 Feb;92(1):19-30
11322586
Brain Cogn. 2004 Feb;54(1):24-34
14733897
Evol Hum Behav. 2000 May 1;21(3):201-213
10828558
Psychol Bull. 1995 Mar;117(2):250-70
7724690
J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1954 Dec;47(6):450-3
13233374
Child Dev. 1985 Dec;56(6):1479-98
4075870