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Updated: Apr 7, 2026
Electroporation of Sliced Human Cortical Organoids for Studies of Gene Function
Published on: November 29, 2024
Possible functional links among brain- and skull-related genes selected in modern humans
Antonio Benítez-Burraco1, Cedric Boeckx2
1Department of Spanish Philology and its Didactics, University of Huelva , Huelva, Spain.
Abstract:
The sequencing of the genomes from extinct hominins has revealed that changes in some brain-related genes have been selected after the split between anatomically-modern humans and Neanderthals/Denisovans. To date, no coherent view of these changes has been provided. Following a line of research we initiated in Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco (2014a), we hypothesize functional links among most of these genes and their products, based on the existing literature for each of the gene discussed. The genes we focus on are found mutated in different cognitive disorders affecting modern populations and their products are involved in skull and brain morphology, and neural connectivity. If our hypothesis turns out to be on the right track, it means that the changes affecting most of these proteins resulted in a more globular brain and ultimately brought about modern cognition, with its characteristic generativity and capacity to form and exploit cross-modular concepts, properties most clearly manifested in language.
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