Hand gestures point towards the origins of language
Communication gestures used by humans and our primate relatives are providing clues about how our species' ability to use spoken language evolved.
Communication gestures used by humans and our primate relatives are providing clues about how our species' ability to use spoken language evolved.
Evolution
Aug 20, 2019
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175
The ethnic and religious composition of many modern societies has been dramatically changed by global modernization. These demographic changes are having a major impact across many spheres of life, including the workplace, ...
Social Sciences
Jul 18, 2019
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6
At some point during human evolution, a handful of genetic changes triggered a dramatic threefold expansion of the brain's neocortex, the wrinkly outermost layer of brain tissue responsible for everything from language to ...
Evolution
Feb 8, 2019
17
254
Compared with the rest of the animal kingdom, mammals have the biggest brains and produce some of the smallest litters of offspring. A newly described fossil of an extinct mammal relative—and her 38 babies—is among the ...
Archaeology
Aug 29, 2018
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214
Our cerebral cortex, a sheet of neurons, connections and circuits, comprises "ancient" regions such as the hippocampus and "new" areas such as the six-layered "neocortex," found only in mammals and most prominently in humans. ...
Evolution
May 4, 2018
0
88
Animals are often noted sensing signs of danger and reacting. A simple form of this phenomenon is called fear conditioning, which is a type of learning commonly seen in every animal. By manipulating the activity of specific ...
Biotechnology
Apr 25, 2018
0
6
For years, scientists assumed that humans devote a larger share of their daily calories to their brains than other animals. Although the human brain makes up only 2 percent of body weight, it consumes more than 25 percent ...
Evolution
Oct 31, 2017
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436
In recently published article from Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the relationship between brain size and behavioural ecology was found to be highly sensitive to small data changes, and widely championed hypotheses such ...
Evolution
Oct 18, 2017
0
6
In a new opinion piece in a major publication, Morten Christiansen, professor of psychology, describes how the study of language has fragmented into many highly-specialized areas of study that tend not to talk to each other. ...
Social Sciences
Aug 1, 2017
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1256
Which came first, overall bigger brains or larger brain regions that control specialized behaviors? Neuroscientists have debated this question for decades, but a new Cornell University study settles the score.
Evolution
May 10, 2017
6
175