scholarly journals Cutting across structural and transcriptomic scales translates time across the lifespan in humans and chimpanzees

2021 ◽  
Vol 288 (1944) ◽  
pp. 20202987
Author(s):  
Christine J. Charvet
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Temporal Variation ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Dimensional Approach ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Rigorous Approach ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
Transcriptional Variation ◽  
Do So

How the unique capacities of human cognition arose in evolution is a question of enduring interest. It is still unclear which developmental programmes are responsible for the emergence of the human brain. The inability to determine corresponding ages between humans and apes has hampered progress in detecting developmental programmes leading to the emergence of the human brain. I harness temporal variation in anatomical, behavioural and transcriptional variation to determine corresponding ages from fetal to postnatal development and ageing, between humans and chimpanzees. This multi-dimensional approach results in 137 corresponding time points across the lifespan, from embryonic day 44 to approximately 55 years of age, in humans and their equivalent ages in chimpanzees. I used these data to test whether developmental programmes, such as the timeline of prefrontal cortex (PFC) maturation, previously claimed to differ between humans and chimpanzees, do so once variation in developmental schedules is controlled for. I compared the maturation of frontal cortex projections from structural magnetic resonance (MR) scans and from temporal variation in the expression of genes used to track long-range projecting neurons (i.e. supragranular-enriched genes) in chimpanzees and humans. Contrary to what has been suggested, the timetable of PFC maturation is not unusually extended in humans. This dataset, which is the largest with which to determine corresponding ages across humans and chimpanzees, provides a rigorous approach to control for variation in developmental schedules and to identify developmental programmes responsible for unique features of the human brain.

scholarly journals Cutting across structural and transcriptomic scales translates time across the lifespan and resolves frontal cortex development in human evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine J. Charvet
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Temporal Variation ◽  
Frontal Cortex ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Developmental Programs ◽  
Rigorous Approach ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
Transcriptional Variation ◽  
Development And Aging

AbstractHow the unique capacities of human cognition arose in evolution is a question of enduring interest. It is still unclear which developmental programs are responsible for the emergence of the human brain. The inability to determine corresponding ages between humans and apes has hampered progress in detecting developmental programs leading to the emergence of the human brain. I harness temporal variation in anatomical, behavioral, and transcriptional variation to determine corresponding ages from fetal to postnatal development and aging, between humans and chimpanzees. This multi-dimensional approach results in 137 corresponding time points across the lifespan, from embryonic day 44 to ∼55 years of age, in humans and their equivalent ages in chimpanzees. I used these data to test whether developmental programs, such as the timeline of prefrontal cortex maturation, previously claimed to differ between humans and chimpanzees, do so once variation in developmental schedules is controlled for. I compared the maturation of frontal cortex projections from structural magnetic resonance (MR) scans and from temporal variation in the expression of genes used to track long-range projecting neurons (i.e., supragranular-enirhced genes) in chimpanzees and humans. Contrary to what has been suggested, the timetable of prefrontal cortex maturation is not unusually extended in humans. This dataset, which is the largest with which to determine corresponding ages across humans and chimpanzees, provides a rigorous approach to control for variation in developmental schedules and to identify developmental programs responsible for unique features of the human brain.

Is the Human Brain Unique?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack M. Gorman
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Brain Diseases ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
The Future ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
The Brain

Some scientists now argue that humans are really not superior to other species, including our nearest genetic neighbors, chimpanzees and bonobos. Indeed, those animals seem capable of many things previously thought to be uniquely human, including a sense of the future, empathy, depression, and theory of mind. However, it is clear that humans alone produce speech, dominate the globe, and have several brain diseases like schizophrenia. There are three possible sources within the brain for these differences in brain function: in the structure of the brain, in genes coding for proteins in the brain, and in the level of expression of genes in the brain. There is evidence that all three are the case, giving us a place to look for the intersection of the human mind and brain: the expression of genes within neurons of the prefrontal cortex.

The role of the anterior prefrontal cortex in human cognition

Nature ◽  
10.1038/20178 ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 399 (6732) ◽  
pp. 148-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Koechlin ◽  
Gianpaolo Basso ◽  
Pietro Pietrini ◽  
Seth Panzer ◽  
Jordan Grafman
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Anterior Prefrontal Cortex

scholarly journals SNAP-25a/b Isoform Levels in Human Brain Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex and Anterior Cingulate Cortex

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 220-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Thompson ◽  
Dianne A. Cruz ◽  
Elizabeth A. Fucich ◽  
Dianna Y. Olukotun ◽  
Masami Takahashi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Anterior Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cingulate Cortex ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal

scholarly journals Subjective value and decision entropy are jointly encoded by aligned gradients across the human brain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Bobadilla-Suarez ◽  
Olivia Guest ◽  
Bradley C. Love
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Retrospective Evaluation ◽  
Systematic Fashion ◽  
Subjective Value ◽  
Fmri Analysis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

AbstractRecent work has considered the relationship between value and confidence in both behavior and neural representation. Here we evaluated whether the brain organizes value and confidence signals in a systematic fashion that reflects the overall desirability of options. If so, regions that respond to either increases or decreases in both value and confidence should be widespread. We strongly confirmed these predictions through a model-based fMRI analysis of a mixed gambles task that assessed subjective value (SV) and inverse decision entropy (iDE), which is related to confidence. Purported value areas more strongly signalled iDE than SV, underscoring how intertwined value and confidence are. A gradient tied to the desirability of actions transitioned from positive SV and iDE in ventromedial prefrontal cortex to negative SV and iDE in dorsal medial prefrontal cortex. This alignment of SV and iDE signals could support retrospective evaluation to guide learning and subsequent decisions.

Cerebellar, Prefrontal Cortex, and Thalamic Volumes Over Two Time Points in Adolescent-Onset Schizophrenia

2004 ◽  
Vol 161 (6) ◽  
pp. 1023-1029 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony C. James ◽  
Susan James ◽  
David M. Smith ◽  
Auxi Javaloyes
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Time Points

Principles of evolutionary theory, evolutionary psychopathology, and genetics

2015 ◽  
pp. 3-40
Author(s):  
Martin Brüne
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Psychosomatic Medicine ◽  
Genetic Variants ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Protective Effects ◽  
Changing Environments ◽  
Genes And Environment ◽  
Natural And Sexual Selection

Darwin’s work on evolution by natural and sexual selection is the central scientific framework in biology that explains how life developed through adaptation to changing environments. Evolution has been the driving force that has shaped the human brain and mind in the same way as it has formed somatic traits. Many adaptations pertaining to human cognition, emotions, and behaviour emerged in ancestral environments of evolutionary adaptedness, from which modern living conditions deviate in one way or another. Such ‘mismatches’ of evolved traits and current environments may cause vulnerability to dysfunctional operation of cognitive, emotional, and behavioural traits. Genes and environment interact in manifold ways, yet genetic plasticity may not only convey vulnerability to dysfunction. Instead, the very same genetic variants that may lead to dysfunction when associated with environmental adversity exert protective effects against dysfunction when environments are more favourable. These insights have yet to be acknowledged by psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine.

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