Human brain evolution: How the increase of brain plasticity made us a cultural species

Authors

  • Aida Gómez-Robles George Washington University (USA).
  • Chet C. Sherwood George Washington University (USA).

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.7.7602

Keywords:

genes, environment, development, altriciality, epigenetics

Abstract

Why are humans so different from other primate species? What makes us so capable of creating language, art and music? The specializations in human brain anatomy that are responsible for our unique behavioral and cognitive traits evolved over a very short period of evolutionary time (between six and eight million years). Recent evidence suggests that, alongside a reorganization of the brain and an increase in its size, neural plasticity may also play a major role in explaining the evolutionary history of our species. Plasticity is the propensity of the brain to be molded by external influences, including the ecological, social and cultural context. The impact of these environmental influences in shaping human behavior has been long recognized, but it has been only recently that scientists have started discovering the more pronounced plasticity of human brains compared to our close relatives.

 

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Author Biographies

Aida Gómez-Robles, George Washington University (USA).

Postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory for Evolutionary Neuroscience of The George Washington University (USA). She obtained her PhD in paleoanthropology at the National Research Center for Human Evolution (Burgos, Spain). Her current research focuses on the study of brain evolution in chimpanzees and humans, with particular emphasis on the evolution of brain plasticity in our species.

Chet C. Sherwood, George Washington University (USA).

Full Professor of Anthropology, member of the Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology and Co-Director of the Mind-Brain Institute at The George Washington University (USA). He is the author of numerous scientific papers evaluating brain evolution in primates and other mammals. Among other studies, he has analyzed the processes of neocortical development in humans and great apes.

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Published

2017-06-20

How to Cite

Gómez-Robles, A., & Sherwood, C. C. (2017). Human brain evolution: How the increase of brain plasticity made us a cultural species. Metode Science Studies Journal, (7), 35–43. https://doi.org/10.7203/metode.7.7602
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Issue

Unravelling science: Pulling the thread of knowledge (2017)

Section

The secrets of the brain. An evolutionary perspective on neuroscience

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