Homo Paedens? Did Kids Invent the Human Species?

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-114
Author(s):  
Melvin Konner
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Epigenetic Modification ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Evolution Of Development ◽  
Evolutionary Analysis ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Human Brain Evolution ◽  
Selective Forces ◽  
Evo Devo ◽  
Extensive Reference

Abstract The evolution of development (“evo-devo”) has become a central concern in both evolu­tionary and developmental research, and human immaturity is no less a proper focus for evolutionary analysis than that of other species-if anything, it is more so. Two new books by David F. Bjorklund, a founder of evolutionary developmental psychology, summarize what we know now and propose that children invented our species. Due to the new phe­nomenon of partly heritable epigenetic modification of genes and the old one of the Bald­win Effect (by which plasticity leads to new selective forces on genes), this claim must be at least partly true. The inherent plasticity of children’s behavior, including play, accelerat­ed the evolution of humanity as instantiated in the human brain. Evolution cannot be understood without extensive reference to development, and nothing in childhood makes sense except in the light of evolution.

scholarly journals Genetic mapping and evolutionary analysis of human-expanded cognitive networks

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongbin Wei ◽  
Siemon C. de Lange ◽  
Lianne H. Scholtens ◽  
Kyoko Watanabe ◽  
Dirk Jan Ardesch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Cognitive Networks ◽  
High Expression ◽  
Functional Networks ◽  
Evolutionary Analysis ◽  
Genetic Changes ◽  
Frontoparietal Network ◽  
Human Brain Evolution

Abstract Cognitive brain networks such as the default-mode network (DMN), frontoparietal network, and salience network, are key functional networks of the human brain. Here we show that the rapid evolutionary cortical expansion of cognitive networks in the human brain, and most pronounced the DMN, runs parallel with high expression of human-accelerated genes (HAR genes). Using comparative transcriptomics analysis, we present that HAR genes are differentially more expressed in higher-order cognitive networks in humans compared to chimpanzees and macaques and that genes with high expression in the DMN are involved in synapse and dendrite formation. Moreover, HAR and DMN genes show significant associations with individual variations in DMN functional activity, intelligence, sociability, and mental conditions such as schizophrenia and autism. Our results suggest that the expansion of higher-order functional networks subserving increasing cognitive properties has been an important locus of genetic changes in recent human brain evolution.

Human brain evolution: food for thoughts

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 683-685 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim HM Saris ◽  
Steven B Heymsfield ◽  
William J Evans
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Human Brain Evolution

scholarly journals Evolutionary modifications in human brain connectivity associated with schizophrenia

Brain ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (12) ◽  
pp. 3991-4002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martijn P van den Heuvel ◽  
Lianne H Scholtens ◽  
Siemon C de Lange ◽  
Rory Pijnenburg ◽  
Wiepke Cahn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Brain Functions ◽  
Human Brain Evolution ◽  
The Brain

See Vértes and Seidlitz (doi:10.1093/brain/awz353) for a scientific commentary on this article. Is schizophrenia a by-product of human brain evolution? By comparing the human and chimpanzee connectomes, van den Heuvel et al. demonstrate that connections unique to the human brain show greater involvement in schizophrenia pathology. Modifications in service of higher-order brain functions may have rendered the brain more vulnerable to dysfunction.

Tool and Symbol

Mind Shift ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 32-45
Author(s):  
John Parrington
Keyword(s):  
Tool Use ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Human Brain Evolution ◽  
Equal Importance ◽  
Language Capacity ◽  
Development Of Language

This chapter examines the emergence of tool use and human language in human brain evolution. Increasing use and design of tools made possible by the bipedalism of our proto-human ancestors was a key step in the development of language. Indeed, communal tool use ‘helped to bring the members of society together by increasing the cases of mutual support and joint activity’. During this process, ‘the reaction of labour and speech on the development of the brain and its attendant senses, of the increasing clarity of consciousness, power of abstraction and of conclusion, gave both labour and speech an ever renewed impulse to further development’. The chapter then considers the studies which assess the fundamental differences in terms of language capacity between humans and apes. While the behaviourist view that human language acquisition is simply an accumulation of conditioned reflexes now looks incorrect, recent studies have also challenged the view of a biological basis for a ‘universal grammar’ shared by all humans. Instead, increasing evidence points to both human biology and the process of growing up in a specific human society as being factors of equal importance in the formation of language.

scholarly journals Emerging Roles of Long Non-Coding RNAs as Drivers of Brain Evolution

Cells ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geraldine Zimmer-Bensch
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Relative Volume ◽  
Structural Reorganization ◽  
Protein Coding ◽  
Human Brain Evolution ◽  
Transcriptional Regulatory

Mammalian genomes encode tens of thousands of long-noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which are capable of interactions with DNA, RNA and protein molecules, thereby enabling a variety of transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory activities. Strikingly, about 40% of lncRNAs are expressed specifically in the brain with precisely regulated temporal and spatial expression patterns. In stark contrast to the highly conserved repertoire of protein-coding genes, thousands of lncRNAs have newly appeared during primate nervous system evolution with hundreds of human-specific lncRNAs. Their evolvable nature and the myriad of potential functions make lncRNAs ideal candidates for drivers of human brain evolution. The human brain displays the largest relative volume of any animal species and the most remarkable cognitive abilities. In addition to brain size, structural reorganization and adaptive changes represent crucial hallmarks of human brain evolution. lncRNAs are increasingly reported to be involved in neurodevelopmental processes suggested to underlie human brain evolution, including proliferation, neurite outgrowth and synaptogenesis, as well as in neuroplasticity. Hence, evolutionary human brain adaptations are proposed to be essentially driven by lncRNAs, which will be discussed in this review.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document