#Evolutionarybiology

New scientific research sheds light on why Thais and people worldwide may reach for high-calorie snacks during periods of uncertainty: it is rooted in an ancient survival response to potential food shortages. The study, recently published in the journal Food Quality and Preference, provides experimental evidence that anticipated food scarcity powerfully shapes visual attention and cravings for junk food—a dynamic amplified by current global anxieties, economic turbulence, and pandemic aftershocks (PsyPost).

A groundbreaking wave of neuroscience research is redefining what it means to think—and, crucially, why artificial intelligence (AI) still falls far short of the intricacies of the human mind. A newly published feature in Salon highlights the distinct evolutionary adaptations that make the human brain more than a glorified computer, challenging decades-old assumptions fundamental to AI development and the neural network concept that underlies machine learning models.

For years, popular understanding—and much of AI research—has treated the brain as a vast network made up of nearly identical neurons whose intelligence emerges through the patterns of their collective firing. This view inspired so-called artificial neural networks, computer systems designed to solve problems by mimicking the way brains process information. Such analogies, cemented over decades, fostered the belief that if machines could imitate the structure and connectivity of brains, they might one day match, or even surpass, human intellect. But recent scientific discoveries show this metaphor misses the mark in fundamental ways, with profound implications for both neuroscience and the future of AI.