Cited by 160Primate Behavior and EcologyHemispheric Asymmetry in NeuroscienceNeural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Primate Prefrontal Cortex Evolution: Human Brains Are the Extreme of a Lateralized Ape Trend

Smaers, J.B., Steele, J., Case, C.R., Cowper, A., Amunts, K., Zilles, K.·2011·Brain, Behavior and Evolution

Abstract

The prefrontal cortex is commonly associated with cognitive capacities related to human uniqueness: purposeful actions towards higher-level goals, complex social information processing, introspection, and language. Comparative investigations of the prefrontal cortex may thus shed more light on the neural underpinnings of what makes us human. Using histological data from 19 anthropoid primate species (6 apes including humans and 13 monkeys), we investigate cross-species relative size changes along the anterior (prefrontal) and posterior (motor) axes of the cytoarchitectonically defined frontal lobe in both hemispheres. Results reveal different scaling coefficients in the left versus right prefrontal hemisphere, suggest that the primary factor underlying the evolution of primate brain architecture is left hemispheric prefrontal hyperscaling, and indicate that humans are the extreme of a left prefrontal ape specialization in relative white to grey matter volume. These results demonstrate a neural adaptive shift distinguishing the ape from the monkey radiation possibly related to a cognitive grade shift between (great) apes and other primates.

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  • Mosaic studies have mainly focused on allometric scaling trends of particular brain structures.

    “Mosaic studies have mainly focused on allometric scaling trends of particular brain structures [4,17].”
  • Comparative data on brain structures that are fundamental to neural processing (prefrontal cortex, frontal motor areas and cerebellar lobules) have not been available until very recently, hampering more in-depth insights on the systemic nature of mosaic brain evolution.

    “comparative data on brain structures that are fundamental to neural processing (prefrontal cortex, frontal motor areas and cerebellar lobules) have not been available until very recently [11,17,19–21], hampering more in-depth insights on the systemic nature of mosaic brain evolution.”
  • Recent allometric analyses reveal that, although absolute and proportional frontal region size increased rapidly in hominins, this change was associated with size increase in other areas and whole brain size, rather than with specialization for enlarged frontal lobes specifically.

    “Recent allometric analyses reveal that, although absolute and proportional frontal region size increased rapidly in hominins, this change was associated with size increase in other areas and whole brain size, rather than with specialization for enlarged frontal lobes specifically [57,61–63].”

    From Embodied cognitive evolution and the cerebellum (2012) · cites this paper as [57]

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Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Catani M, Forkel S, Thiebaut de Schotten M (2010): Asymmetry of the white matter path- ways in the brain; in Hugdahl K, Westerhau- sen R (eds): The Two Halves of the Brain: In- formation Processing in the Cerebral Hemi- spheres. Cambridge, MIT Press.
  2. Hopkins WD (ed) (2007): Evolution of Hemi- spheric Specialization in Primates. London, Academic Press.
  3. Jerison HJ (2007): Evolution of the frontal lobes; in Miller BL, Cummings JL (eds): The Hu- man Frontal Lobes: Functions and Disor- ders. New York, The Guilford Press.
  4. Matelli M, Luppino G, Geyer S, Zilles K (2004): Motor cortex; in Paxinos G, Mai JK (eds): The Human Nervous System. Amsterdam, Elsevier Academic Press, pp 975-996.
  5. Preuss TM (2009): What is it like to be a human?; in Gazzaniga MS (ed): The Cognitive Neuro- sciences. Cambridge, MIT Press, pp 49-64.

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Authors
Smaers, J. B., Steele, J., Case, C. R., Cowper, A., Amunts, K., & Zilles, K.
Affiliations
  • Arts and Humanities Research Council (GB)
  • Universitätsklinikum Aachen (DE)
  • Forschungszentrum Jülich (DE)
Venue
Brain, Behavior and Evolution
Publisher
S. Karger AG
Published
2011
Volume
77
Issue
2
Pages
67-78
ISSN
  • 0006-8977 (ISSN-L)
  • 1421-9743
OpenAlex
W2022686960
Cited by
160
References
67
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 11
FWCI
20.08
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Brain Behavior and Evolution (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • JuSER (Forschungszentrum Jülich) (submittedVersion)
  • RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (0923791)
  • Johns Hopkins University
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Keywords
prefrontal cortex, primate brain evolution, hemispheric lateralization, anthropoid primates, great apes, monkeys, frontal lobe, brain size scaling, cognitive evolution, human uniqueness
MeSH terms
Animals, Biological Evolution, Humans, Functional Laterality, Male, Hominidae, Prefrontal Cortex

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