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Three-Dimensional Shape Modeling and Analysis of Brain Structures

Three-Dimensional Shape Modeling and Analysis of Brain Structures

Published on: November 14, 2019

The evolution of modern human brain shape.

Simon Neubauer¹, Jean-Jacques Hublin¹, Philipp Gunz¹

¹Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.

Science Advances

|January 30, 2018

Summary

Modern human brain globularity evolved gradually over hundreds of thousands of years, not immediately with brain size increase. This brain shape development occurred later than other modern human features.

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Area of Science:

Paleoanthropology
Evolutionary Biology
Neuroscience

Background:

Modern humans (Homo sapiens) possess large, globular brains distinct from extinct Homo relatives.
Brain globularity develops during critical prenatal and early postnatal growth periods, influencing neural wiring and cognitive development.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the evolutionary timeline of brain globularity in Homo sapiens.
To understand the relationship between brain size increase and the evolution of brain shape.

Main Methods:

Analysis of endocranial casts from 20 Homo sapiens fossils using computed tomographic scans.
Geometric morphometric analyses to assess brain shape evolution over time.

Main Results:

Early Homo sapiens (300,000 years ago) exhibited brain sizes within the modern human range.
Brain shape evolved gradually within the Homo sapiens lineage, reaching modern variation between 100,000 and 35,000 years ago.
The evolution of brain globularity post-dated the emergence of modern craniofacial morphology and paralleled behavioral modernity.

Conclusions:

Brain globularity evolved later than overall brain size in Homo sapiens.
The gradual evolution of brain shape suggests genetic changes impacting early brain development within the Homo sapiens lineage.
This evolutionary process predates the full behavioral modernity associated with the Later Stone Age and Upper Paleolithic periods.