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Evidence for independent brain and neurocranial reorganization during hominin evolution
Throughout hominin evolution, the brain of our ancestors underwent a 3-fold increase in size and substantial structural reorganization. However, inferring brain reorganization from fossil hominin neurocrania (=braincases) remains a challenge, above all because comparative data relating brain to neur...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
National Academy of Sciences
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6825280/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31611399 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1905071116 |
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author | Alatorre Warren, José Luis Ponce de León, Marcia S. Hopkins, William D. Zollikofer, Christoph P. E. |
author_facet | Alatorre Warren, José Luis Ponce de León, Marcia S. Hopkins, William D. Zollikofer, Christoph P. E. |
author_sort | Alatorre Warren, José Luis |
collection | PubMed |
description | Throughout hominin evolution, the brain of our ancestors underwent a 3-fold increase in size and substantial structural reorganization. However, inferring brain reorganization from fossil hominin neurocrania (=braincases) remains a challenge, above all because comparative data relating brain to neurocranial structures in living humans and great apes are still scarce. Here we use MRI and same-subject spatially aligned computed tomography (CT) and MRI data of humans and chimpanzees to quantify the spatial relationships between these structures, both within and across species. Results indicate that evolutionary changes in brain and neurocranial structures are largely independent of each other. The brains of humans compared to chimpanzees exhibit a characteristic posterior shift of the inferior pre- and postcentral gyri, indicative of reorganization of the frontal opercular region. Changes in human neurocranial structure do not reflect cortical reorganization. Rather, they reflect constraints related to increased encephalization and obligate bipedalism, resulting in relative enlargement of the parietal bones and anterior displacement of the cerebellar fossa. This implies that the relative position and size of neurocranial bones, as well as overall endocranial shape (e.g., globularity), should not be used to make inferences about evolutionary changes in the relative size or reorganization of adjacent cortical regions of fossil hominins. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6825280 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-68252802019-11-06 Evidence for independent brain and neurocranial reorganization during hominin evolution Alatorre Warren, José Luis Ponce de León, Marcia S. Hopkins, William D. Zollikofer, Christoph P. E. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences Throughout hominin evolution, the brain of our ancestors underwent a 3-fold increase in size and substantial structural reorganization. However, inferring brain reorganization from fossil hominin neurocrania (=braincases) remains a challenge, above all because comparative data relating brain to neurocranial structures in living humans and great apes are still scarce. Here we use MRI and same-subject spatially aligned computed tomography (CT) and MRI data of humans and chimpanzees to quantify the spatial relationships between these structures, both within and across species. Results indicate that evolutionary changes in brain and neurocranial structures are largely independent of each other. The brains of humans compared to chimpanzees exhibit a characteristic posterior shift of the inferior pre- and postcentral gyri, indicative of reorganization of the frontal opercular region. Changes in human neurocranial structure do not reflect cortical reorganization. Rather, they reflect constraints related to increased encephalization and obligate bipedalism, resulting in relative enlargement of the parietal bones and anterior displacement of the cerebellar fossa. This implies that the relative position and size of neurocranial bones, as well as overall endocranial shape (e.g., globularity), should not be used to make inferences about evolutionary changes in the relative size or reorganization of adjacent cortical regions of fossil hominins. National Academy of Sciences 2019-10-29 2019-10-14 /pmc/articles/PMC6825280/ /pubmed/31611399 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1905071116 Text en Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Biological Sciences Alatorre Warren, José Luis Ponce de León, Marcia S. Hopkins, William D. Zollikofer, Christoph P. E. Evidence for independent brain and neurocranial reorganization during hominin evolution |
title | Evidence for independent brain and neurocranial reorganization during hominin evolution |
title_full | Evidence for independent brain and neurocranial reorganization during hominin evolution |
title_fullStr | Evidence for independent brain and neurocranial reorganization during hominin evolution |
title_full_unstemmed | Evidence for independent brain and neurocranial reorganization during hominin evolution |
title_short | Evidence for independent brain and neurocranial reorganization during hominin evolution |
title_sort | evidence for independent brain and neurocranial reorganization during hominin evolution |
topic | Biological Sciences |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6825280/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31611399 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1905071116 |
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