期刊
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
卷 280, 期 1761, 页码 -出版社
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0575
关键词
chimpanzee; hominin; EvoDevo; geometric morphometrics; neuroanatomy
资金
- National Science Foundation [BCS-0515484, BCS-0549117, BCS-0824531, DGE-0801634]
- National Institutes of Health [HD-56232, MH-92932, NS-42867, NS-73134, RR-00165, U01 MH081896]
- James S. McDonnell Foundation [22002078, 220020165, 220020293]
- [P50 AG05681]
- [P01 AG03991]
- [R01 AG021910]
- [P50 MH071616]
- [U24 RR021382]
- [R01 MH56584]
- Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie
- Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci [0827531] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
The study of hominin brain evolution relies mostly on evaluation of the endocranial morphology of fossil skulls. However, only some general features of external brain morphology are evident from endocasts, and many anatomical details can be difficult or impossible to examine. In this study, we use geometric morphometric techniques to evaluate inter- and intraspecific differences in cerebral morphology in a sample of in vivo magnetic resonance imaging scans of chimpanzees and humans, with special emphasis on the study of asymmetric variation. Our study reveals that chimpanzee-human differences in cerebral morphology are mainly symmetric; by contrast, there is continuity in asymmetric variation between species, with humans showing an increased range of variation. Moreover, asymmetric variation does not appear to be the result of allometric scaling at intraspecific levels, whereas symmetric changes exhibit very slight allometric effects within each species. Our results emphasize two key properties of brain evolution in the hominine clade: first, evolution of chimpanzee and human brains (and probably their last common ancestor and related species) is not strongly morphologically constrained, thus making their brains highly evolvable and responsive to selective pressures; second, chimpanzee and, especially, human brains show high levels of fluctuating asymmetry indicative of pronounced developmental plasticity. We infer that these two characteristics can have a role in human cognitive evolution.
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