Longman, Daniel P;
Wells, Jonathan CK;
Stock, Jay T;
(2023)
Human energetic stress associated with upregulation of spatial cognition.
American Journal of Biological Anthropology
, 182
(1)
pp. 32-44.
10.1002/ajpa.24820.
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Abstract
Objectives: Evolutionary life history theory has a unique potential to shed light on human adaptive capabilities. Ultra-endurance challenges are a valuable experimental model allowing the direct testing of phenotypic plasticity via physiological trade-offs in resource allocation. This enhances our understanding of how the body prioritizes different functions when energetically stressed. However, despite the central role played by the brain in both hominin evolution and metabolic budgeting, cognitive plasticity during energetic deficit remains unstudied. Materials: We considered human cognitive plasticity under conditions of energetic deficit by evaluating variability in performance in three key cognitive domains. To achieve this, cognitive performance in a sample of 48 athletes (m = 29, f = 19) was assessed before and after competing in multiday ultramarathons. Results: We demonstrate that under conditions of energetic deficit, performance in tasks of spatial working memory (which assessed ability to store location information, promoting landscape navigation and facilitating resource location and calorie acquisition) increased. In contrast, psychomotor speed (reaction time) remained unchanged and episodic memory performance (ability to recall information about specific events) decreased. Discussion: We propose that prioritization of spatial working memory performance during conditions of negative energy balance represents an adaptive response due to its role in facilitating calorie acquisition. We discuss these results with reference to a human evolutionary trajectory centred around encephalisation. Encephalisation affords great plasticity, facilitating rapid responses tailored to specific environmental conditions, and allowing humans to increase their capabilities as a phenotypically plastic species.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Human energetic stress associated with upregulation of spatial cognition |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/ajpa.24820 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24820 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2023 The Authors. American Journal of Biological Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Anthropology, Evolutionary Biology, cognition, energetics, evolution, life history, trade-offs, HEAT-STRESS, TRADE-OFFS, EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, WORKING-MEMORY, SELFISH BRAIN, LIFE, EXERCISE, COSTS, SIZE, GLUCOSE |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10181182 |
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