http://phys.org/news/2014-10-unexpectedly-speedy-expansion-human-ape.html
Two British researchers - Rob Barton and Chris Venditti have moved the spotlight, in the brain, from the neo-cortex to the cerebellum. They show how the cerebellum, in real terms, has expanded mightily in the apes, and on into humans. The neuronal density in the cerebellum is greater than that throughout the neo-cortex. "In humans, the cerebellum contains about 70 billion neurons—four times more than in the neocortex," Barton says. "Nobody really knows what all these neurons are for, but they must be doing something important."
As time goes by, the cerebellum has been found to have more sophisticated roles than previously thought. These include "the temporal organization of complex behavioral sequences, such as those involved in making and using tools, for instance. Interestingly, evidence is now emerging for a critical role of the cerebellum in language, too."
Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Friday, 3 October 2014
Wednesday, 1 October 2014
Humanized Foxp2 accelerates learning by enhancing transitions from declarative to procedural performance
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/39/14253.abstract.html?etoc
Here's an interesting paper in PNAS which furthers our understanding of how the transcription factor FOXP2 underpins the human language faculty. All the main scientists cited in NOT A CHIMP are among the co-authors - Simon Fisher, Wolfie Enard and Svante Paabo, and their observations stem from transplanting human FOXP2 into mice.
Here's an interesting paper in PNAS which furthers our understanding of how the transcription factor FOXP2 underpins the human language faculty. All the main scientists cited in NOT A CHIMP are among the co-authors - Simon Fisher, Wolfie Enard and Svante Paabo, and their observations stem from transplanting human FOXP2 into mice.