TY  - JOUR
AU  - Smaers, J.B.
AU  - Steele, J.
AU  - Case, C.R.
AU  - Cowper, A.
AU  - Amunts, K.
AU  - Zilles, K.
TI  - Primate Prefrontal Cortex Evolution: Human Brains are the Extreme of a Lateralized Ape Trend
JO  - Brain, behavior and evolution
VL  - 77
SN  - 0006-8977
CY  - Basel
PB  - Karger
M1  - PreJuSER-14894
SP  - 67 - 78
PY  - 2011
N1  - We would like to thank Axel Schleicher and John R. Skoyles for useful comments and discussion and Hartmut Mohlberg for making images with the delineation of the motor cortex available from the Julich/Dusseldorf brain atlas. For training in phylogenetic comparative methods, we thank the AnthroTree Workshop (supported by NSF BCS-0923791). This work was supported by the EC FP6 HANDTOMOUTH project (contract No. 29065).
AB  - The prefrontal cortex is commonly associated with cognitive capacities related to human uniqueness: purposeful actions towards higher-level goals, complex social information processing, introspection, and language. Comparative investigations of the prefrontal cortex may thus shed more light on the neural underpinnings of what makes us human. Using histological data from 19 anthropoid primate species (6 apes including humans and 13 monkeys), we investigate cross-species relative size changes along the anterior (prefrontal) and posterior (motor) axes of the cytoarchitectonically defined frontal lobe in both hemispheres. Results reveal different scaling coefficients in the left versus right prefrontal hemisphere, suggest that the primary factor underlying the evolution of primate brain architecture is left hemispheric prefrontal hyperscaling, and indicate that humans are the extreme of a left prefrontal ape specialization in relative white to grey matter volume. These results demonstrate a neural adaptive shift distinguishing the ape from the monkey radiation possibly related to a cognitive grade shift between (great) apes and other primates.
KW  - Animals
KW  - Biological Evolution
KW  - Functional Laterality: physiology
KW  - Hominidae: anatomy & histology
KW  - Hominidae: growth & development
KW  - Humans
KW  - Male
KW  - Prefrontal Cortex: anatomy & histology
KW  - Prefrontal Cortex: growth & development
KW  - J (WoSType)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:21335939
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000290093800002
DO  - DOI:10.1159/000323671
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/14894
ER  -