Changing views of brain evolution

Although brain studies began in ancient Egypt, speculations on vertebrate brain evolution occurred only much later, after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859. Subsequently, views of brain evolution have been shaped by a complex interplay of theory and technique. Darwin's theory allowed the variation in brain size and complexity to be re-interpreted within an evolutionary context, albeit an erroneous pre-Darwinian context based on scala naturae. With the development of histological techniques, research shifted to descriptions of cellular structure, cellular aggregates and their putative interconnections. In spite of these technical advances, brain evolution continued to be viewed within the context of scala naturae. Following the publication of The Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System of Vertebrates by Ariëns Kappers, Huber, and Crosby in 1936, there followed a period of stasis, after which biological views of evolution were radically altered by the confluence of genetics, paleontology, and systematics, termed the Evolutionary Synthesis. Against this background, the development of new experimental techniques for establishing neural connections resulted in a new flowering of comparative neuroanatomy. While comparative descriptive and experimental studies of brain organization continue, the rapprochement of embryology and genetics is fueling a new renaissance that promises to increase our understanding of brain evolution and its genetic basis.