Sexual Dimorphism and Laterality in the Evolution of the Primate Prefrontal Cortex
Abstract
Social selective pressures are commonly considered as the main driving force of primate brain evolution. Primate social behaviour is, however, known to be sexually dimorphic, and no previous study has made a direct comparison between male and female brain structures across species. We quantify sex-specific evolutionary trends in the prefrontal cortex of anthropoid primates (including humans) to investigate how sexual selection has shaped brain evolution in primates. The prefrontal cortex is of particular importance to the investigation of sexual dimorphism in primate brain evolution because of its association to those cognitive capacities central to primate (and human) evolution: sociality and higher-order cognitive processing. Our results demonstrate sex-by-hemisphere differences in the evolution of the prefrontal cortex in humans and non-human anthropoid primates congruent with the principal selective pressures considered to underlie anthropoid behavioural evolution. Our findings further show how sexual selection can shape brain adaptation in primates and provide an evolutionary framework for interpreting sex and sex-by-hemisphere differences in cortical organization in humans and non-human primates.
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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.”
From Brain reorganization, not relative brain size, primarily characterizes anthropoid brain evolution (2013) · cites this paper as [19]
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Brain reorganization, not relative brain size, primarily characterizes anthropoid brain evolution
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- Authors
- Smaers, J. B., Mulvaney, P. I., Soligo, C., Zilles, K., & Amunts, K.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (DE)
- Forschungszentrum Jülich (DE)
- Venue
- Brain, Behavior and Evolution
- Publisher
- S. Karger AG
- Published
- 2012
- Volume
- 79
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 205-212
- ISSN
- 0006-8977 (ISSN-L)
- 1421-9743
- OpenAlex
- W2020720988
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 4.83
- 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)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience
- Keywords
- sexual dimorphism, hemispheric lateralization, prefrontal cortex, primate brain evolution, sexual selection, anthropoid primates, social cognition, cortical organization, higher-order cognition
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Haplorhini, Brain, Biological Evolution, Female, Humans, Male, Nerve Fibers, Myelinated, Organ Size, Primates, Sex Characteristics, Prefrontal Cortex, Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated, Cerebrum
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