Understanding the human brain: insights from comparative biology

DeCasien, Alex R.; Barton, Robert A.; Higham, James P.

Abstract

Human brains are exceptionally large, support distinctive cognitive processes, and evolved by natural selection to mediate adaptive behavior. Comparative biology situates the human brain in evolutionary context to illuminate how it has been shaped by selection and how its structure relates to evolutionary function, while identifying the developmental and molecular changes that were involved. Recent applications of powerful phylogenetic methods have made new findings, some of which overturn conventional wisdom about how brains evolve. Here, we focus on four long-standing claims about brain evolution, and discuss how new work has either contradicted them or shown them to be much more complicated than previously appreciated. Throughout, we emphasize studies of nonhuman primates and hominins, our recent ancestors and close relatives.

Citation

DeCasien, A. R., Barton, R. A., & Higham, J. P. (2022). Understanding the human brain: insights from comparative biology. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(5), 432-445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2022.02.003

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 8, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Mar 16, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-05
• Deposit Date: Mar 3, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 16, 2023
• Journal: Trends in Cognitive Sciences
• Print ISSN: 1364-6613
• Electronic ISSN: 1879-307X
• Publisher: Cell Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 432-445
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2022.02.003