Memory for medicinal plants remains in ancient and modern environments suggesting an evolved adaptedness
Adaptive memory is the propensity of human memory to easily store and retrieve important information to deal with challenges related to the Pleistocene. Recent evidence shows that humans have had a multiregional evolution across the African continent, including the rainforests and deciduous forests;...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2021-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8544875/?tool=EBI |
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| author | Joelson Moreno Brito Moura Risoneide Henriques da Silva Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior Taline Cristina da Silva Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque |
| author_facet | Joelson Moreno Brito Moura Risoneide Henriques da Silva Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior Taline Cristina da Silva Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque |
| author_sort | Joelson Moreno Brito Moura |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Adaptive memory is the propensity of human memory to easily store and retrieve important information to deal with challenges related to the Pleistocene. Recent evidence shows that humans have had a multiregional evolution across the African continent, including the rainforests and deciduous forests; however, there is little evidence regarding the implications of these origins and the relevant and recurring challenges of these environments on survival processing advantage in memory. In this study, we conducted an experiment with volunteers to analyze whether adaptive memory operates in the retrieval of important information to solve challenges of using medicinal plants to treat diseases in the ancestral environments of the savanna, rainforests, and deciduous forests compared to the modern environments of desert, tundra, coniferous forest, and urban areas. We used simulated survival environments and asked volunteers (30 per simulated scenario) to imagine themselves sick in one of these environments, and needing to find medicinal plants to treat their disease. The volunteers rated the relevance of 32 words to solve this challenge, followed by a surprise memory test. Our results showed no ancestral priority in recalling relevant information, as both ancestral and modern environments showed a similar recall of relevant information. This suggests that the evolved cognitive apparatus allows human beings to survive and can create survival strategies to face challenges imposed in various environments. We believe that this is only possible if the human mind operates through a flexible cognitive mechanism. This flexibility can reflect, for example, the different environments that the first hominids inhabited and the different dangerous situations that they faced. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-18T01:27:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4192d11f337b4310845e1af96b6edabb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-18T01:27:18Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-4192d11f337b4310845e1af96b6edabb2022-12-21T21:25:41ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032021-01-011610Memory for medicinal plants remains in ancient and modern environments suggesting an evolved adaptednessJoelson Moreno Brito MouraRisoneide Henriques da SilvaWashington Soares Ferreira JúniorTaline Cristina da SilvaUlysses Paulino AlbuquerqueAdaptive memory is the propensity of human memory to easily store and retrieve important information to deal with challenges related to the Pleistocene. Recent evidence shows that humans have had a multiregional evolution across the African continent, including the rainforests and deciduous forests; however, there is little evidence regarding the implications of these origins and the relevant and recurring challenges of these environments on survival processing advantage in memory. In this study, we conducted an experiment with volunteers to analyze whether adaptive memory operates in the retrieval of important information to solve challenges of using medicinal plants to treat diseases in the ancestral environments of the savanna, rainforests, and deciduous forests compared to the modern environments of desert, tundra, coniferous forest, and urban areas. We used simulated survival environments and asked volunteers (30 per simulated scenario) to imagine themselves sick in one of these environments, and needing to find medicinal plants to treat their disease. The volunteers rated the relevance of 32 words to solve this challenge, followed by a surprise memory test. Our results showed no ancestral priority in recalling relevant information, as both ancestral and modern environments showed a similar recall of relevant information. This suggests that the evolved cognitive apparatus allows human beings to survive and can create survival strategies to face challenges imposed in various environments. We believe that this is only possible if the human mind operates through a flexible cognitive mechanism. This flexibility can reflect, for example, the different environments that the first hominids inhabited and the different dangerous situations that they faced.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8544875/?tool=EBI |
| spellingShingle | Joelson Moreno Brito Moura Risoneide Henriques da Silva Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior Taline Cristina da Silva Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque Memory for medicinal plants remains in ancient and modern environments suggesting an evolved adaptedness PLoS ONE |
| title | Memory for medicinal plants remains in ancient and modern environments suggesting an evolved adaptedness |
| title_full | Memory for medicinal plants remains in ancient and modern environments suggesting an evolved adaptedness |
| title_fullStr | Memory for medicinal plants remains in ancient and modern environments suggesting an evolved adaptedness |
| title_full_unstemmed | Memory for medicinal plants remains in ancient and modern environments suggesting an evolved adaptedness |
| title_short | Memory for medicinal plants remains in ancient and modern environments suggesting an evolved adaptedness |
| title_sort | memory for medicinal plants remains in ancient and modern environments suggesting an evolved adaptedness |
| url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8544875/?tool=EBI |
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