TY  - JOUR
AU  - Smaers, J.B.
AU  - Mulvaney, P.I.
AU  - Soligo, C.I.
AU  - Zilles, K.
AU  - Amunts, K.
TI  - Sexual dimorphism and laterality in the evolution of the primate prefrontal cortex
JO  - Brain, behavior and evolution
VL  - 79
SN  - 0006-8977
CY  - Basel
PB  - Karger
M1  - PreJuSER-19097
SP  - 205 - 212
PY  - 2012
N1  - Record converted from VDB: 12.11.2012
AB  - Social selective pressures are commonly considered as the main driving force of primate brain evolution. Primate social behaviour is, however, known to be sexually dimorphic, and no previous study has made a direct comparison between male and female brain structures across species. We quantify sex-specific evolutionary trends in the prefrontal cortex of anthropoid primates (including humans) to investigate how sexual selection has shaped brain evolution in primates. The prefrontal cortex is of particular importance to the investigation of sexual dimorphism in primate brain evolution because of its association to those cognitive capacities central to primate (and human) evolution: sociality and higher-order cognitive processing. Our results demonstrate sex-by-hemisphere differences in the evolution of the prefrontal cortex in humans and non-human anthropoid primates congruent with the principal selective pressures considered to underlie anthropoid behavioural evolution. Our findings further show how sexual selection can shape brain adaptation in primates and provide an evolutionary framework for interpreting sex and sex-by-hemisphere differences in cortical organization in humans and non-human primates.
KW  - Animals
KW  - Biological Evolution
KW  - Brain: anatomy & histology
KW  - Cerebrum: anatomy & histology
KW  - Female
KW  - Haplorhini: anatomy & histology
KW  - Humans
KW  - Male
KW  - Nerve Fibers, Myelinated
KW  - Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated
KW  - Organ Size
KW  - Prefrontal Cortex: anatomy & histology
KW  - Primates: physiology
KW  - Sex Characteristics
KW  - J (WoSType)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:22327843
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000303489900007
DO  - DOI:10.1159/000336115
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/19097
ER  -