We know from studying embryology that when a fetus is developing, the first primitive organ that starts to develop is the brain and spinal cord just six weeks after conception. We tend to think the brain and nervous system are first, and the other organs develop afterwards. This is what happens when a fetus develops. However, from an evolutionary standpoint, it’s not quite so simple.
To understand how the brain and nervous system appeared, we must go back and look at evolution. Species evolve because there is an evolutionary advantage for that change to happen.
If we go back hundreds of millions of years to the origin of the nervous system, sitting among the other organisms on the ocean floor here, there was a multicellular organism that developed the first network of nerve cells, a primitive jellyfish. It had two evolutionary survival advantages. It could protect itself, and the other is that it had mobility.
The ability to protect ourselves and the ability to have mobility is what allows higher life forms to perpetuate. We can escape from danger or attack an enemy, which we often call a fight or flight mechanism. We also have the opportunity to enrich our lives by finding food, better shelter and acquiring prosperity.
There is something so crucial to life. It is the ability to move; movement is primordial to the nervous system, and a brain and nervous system is only necessary in highly mobile creatures. Today, we understand the foundational link between the physical body, movement, and the nervous system.
Over the millions of years, there has been a change from less specialized to more specialized. From organisms with a primitive cluster of nerve cells, we come to the human that has developed the most specialized and complex group of cells, which we call the brain. With the development of the brain came the spinal column, which provided protection and mobility. In reality, the spine carries the brain from place to place, allowing us to do things.
Evolution has allowed us to have mobility and for our brains to advance far beyond those of the lower species.
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