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Impaired Air Conditioning within the Nasal Cavity in Flat-Faced Homo

We are flat-faced hominins with an external nose that protrudes from the face. This feature was derived in the genus Homo, along with facial flattening and reorientation to form a high nasal cavity. The nasal passage conditions the inhaled air in terms of temperature and humidity to match the condit...

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Published in:PLoS computational biology 2016-03, Vol.12 (3), p.e1004807-e1004807
Main Authors: Nishimura, Takeshi, Mori, Futoshi, Hanida, Sho, Kumahata, Kiyoshi, Ishikawa, Shigeru, Samarat, Kaouthar, Miyabe-Nishiwaki, Takako, Hayashi, Misato, Tomonaga, Masaki, Suzuki, Juri, Matsuzawa, Tetsuro, Matsuzawa, Teruo
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cited_by cdi_FETCH-LOGICAL-c771t-eda2c4cddd2869d5f1a2f856c3ae0909242bcd7225216fcb354a4d91db2cbf823
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creator Nishimura, Takeshi
Mori, Futoshi
Hanida, Sho
Kumahata, Kiyoshi
Ishikawa, Shigeru
Samarat, Kaouthar
Miyabe-Nishiwaki, Takako
Hayashi, Misato
Tomonaga, Masaki
Suzuki, Juri
Matsuzawa, Tetsuro
Matsuzawa, Teruo
description We are flat-faced hominins with an external nose that protrudes from the face. This feature was derived in the genus Homo, along with facial flattening and reorientation to form a high nasal cavity. The nasal passage conditions the inhaled air in terms of temperature and humidity to match the conditions required in the lung, and its anatomical variation is believed to be evolutionarily sensitive to the ambient atmospheric conditions of a given habitat. In this study, we used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with three-dimensional topology models of the nasal passage under the same simulation conditions, to investigate air-conditioning performance in humans, chimpanzees, and macaques. The CFD simulation showed a horizontal straight flow of inhaled air in chimpanzees and macaques, contrasting with the upward and curved flow in humans. The inhaled air is conditioned poorly in humans compared with nonhuman primates. Virtual modifications to the human external nose topology, in which the nasal vestibule and valve are modified to resemble those of chimpanzees, change the airflow to be horizontal, but have little influence on the air-conditioning performance in humans. These findings suggest that morphological variation of the nasal passage topology was only weakly sensitive to the ambient atmosphere conditions; rather, the high nasal cavity in humans was formed simply by evolutionary facial reorganization in the divergence of Homo from the other hominin lineages, impairing the air-conditioning performance. Even though the inhaled air is not adjusted well within the nasal cavity in humans, it can be fully conditioned subsequently in the pharyngeal cavity, which is lengthened in the flat-faced Homo. Thus, the air-conditioning faculty in the nasal passages was probably impaired in early Homo members, although they have survived successfully under the fluctuating climate of the Plio-Pleistocene, and then they moved "Out of Africa" to explore the more severe climates of Eurasia.
doi_str_mv 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004807
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This feature was derived in the genus Homo, along with facial flattening and reorientation to form a high nasal cavity. The nasal passage conditions the inhaled air in terms of temperature and humidity to match the conditions required in the lung, and its anatomical variation is believed to be evolutionarily sensitive to the ambient atmospheric conditions of a given habitat. In this study, we used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with three-dimensional topology models of the nasal passage under the same simulation conditions, to investigate air-conditioning performance in humans, chimpanzees, and macaques. The CFD simulation showed a horizontal straight flow of inhaled air in chimpanzees and macaques, contrasting with the upward and curved flow in humans. The inhaled air is conditioned poorly in humans compared with nonhuman primates. Virtual modifications to the human external nose topology, in which the nasal vestibule and valve are modified to resemble those of chimpanzees, change the airflow to be horizontal, but have little influence on the air-conditioning performance in humans. These findings suggest that morphological variation of the nasal passage topology was only weakly sensitive to the ambient atmosphere conditions; rather, the high nasal cavity in humans was formed simply by evolutionary facial reorganization in the divergence of Homo from the other hominin lineages, impairing the air-conditioning performance. Even though the inhaled air is not adjusted well within the nasal cavity in humans, it can be fully conditioned subsequently in the pharyngeal cavity, which is lengthened in the flat-faced Homo. 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This feature was derived in the genus Homo, along with facial flattening and reorientation to form a high nasal cavity. The nasal passage conditions the inhaled air in terms of temperature and humidity to match the conditions required in the lung, and its anatomical variation is believed to be evolutionarily sensitive to the ambient atmospheric conditions of a given habitat. In this study, we used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with three-dimensional topology models of the nasal passage under the same simulation conditions, to investigate air-conditioning performance in humans, chimpanzees, and macaques. The CFD simulation showed a horizontal straight flow of inhaled air in chimpanzees and macaques, contrasting with the upward and curved flow in humans. The inhaled air is conditioned poorly in humans compared with nonhuman primates. Virtual modifications to the human external nose topology, in which the nasal vestibule and valve are modified to resemble those of chimpanzees, change the airflow to be horizontal, but have little influence on the air-conditioning performance in humans. These findings suggest that morphological variation of the nasal passage topology was only weakly sensitive to the ambient atmosphere conditions; rather, the high nasal cavity in humans was formed simply by evolutionary facial reorganization in the divergence of Homo from the other hominin lineages, impairing the air-conditioning performance. Even though the inhaled air is not adjusted well within the nasal cavity in humans, it can be fully conditioned subsequently in the pharyngeal cavity, which is lengthened in the flat-faced Homo. Thus, the air-conditioning faculty in the nasal passages was probably impaired in early Homo members, although they have survived successfully under the fluctuating climate of the Plio-Pleistocene, and then they moved "Out of Africa" to explore the more severe climates of Eurasia.</abstract><cop>United States</cop><pub>Public Library of Science</pub><pmid>27010321</pmid><doi>10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004807</doi><oa>free_for_read</oa></addata></record>
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subjects Air
Air Conditioning - methods
Animals
Biology and life sciences
Climate
Contests
Fluid dynamics
Hominidae
Humans
Humidity
Inhalation - physiology
Macaca
Medical imaging
Medicine and Health Sciences
Nasal Cavity - anatomy & histology
Nasal Cavity - physiology
Nasal fossa
NMR
Nose
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Pan troglodytes
Physiological aspects
Primates
Rheology - methods
Species Specificity
Studies
Temperature
title Impaired Air Conditioning within the Nasal Cavity in Flat-Faced Homo
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