What makes the human brain different?

Journal/Book: Annu Rev Anthropol. 1997; 26: 4139 El Camino Way, PO Box 10139, Palo Alto, CA 94303-0139. Annual Reviews Inc. 337-357.

Abstract: Despite decades of research that has revolutionized the neurosciences, efforts to explain the major features of human brain evolution are still mostly based on superficial gross neuroanatomical features (e.g. Size, sulcal patterns) and on theories of selection for high-level functions that lack precise neurobiological predictions (e.g. General intelligence, innate grammar). Beyond its large size we still lack an account of what makes a human brain different. However, advances in comparative neuroanatomy, developmental biology, and genetics have radically changed our understanding of brain development. These data challenge classic ideas about brain size, intelligence, and the addition of new functions, such as language, and they provide tools with which we can test hypotheses about how human brains diverge from other primate brains.

Note: Article Deacon TW, Boston Univ, Dept Anthropol, Boston,MA 02215 USA

Keyword(s): brain evolution; brain size; development; intelligence; encephalization; homeotic genes; allometry; BLIND MOLE-RAT; HOMEOBOX GENES; AXON GUIDANCE; EVOLUTION; SYSTEM; CORTEX; SIZE; PROJECTIONS

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