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
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
0
436
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
0
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
Ravens have impressive cognitive skills when interacting with conspecifics – comparable to many primates, whose social intelligence has been related to their life in groups. An international collaboration of researchers ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 23, 2017
0
88
Scientists have used an imaging technique to reconstruct the brain architecture and neural networks of the thylacine—better known as the Tasmanian tiger—an extinct carnivorous marsupial native to Tasmania. The study, ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 18, 2017
0
282
The brains of wild cats don't necessarily respond to the same evolutionary pressures as those of their fellow mammals, humans and primates, indicates a surprising new study led by a Michigan State University neuroscientist.
Plants & Animals
Oct 31, 2016
0
150
New research suggests that humans became the large-brained, large-bodied animals we are today because of natural selection to increase brain size. The work, published in the journal Current Anthropology, contradicts previous ...
Evolution
Apr 18, 2016
9
56
Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, but what is it about the human brain that makes us so different? Researchers at the George Washington University may have unearthed another piece of the puzzle. In a study published ...
Evolution
Nov 16, 2015
1
248
The neocortex is the part of the brain that enables us to speak, dream, or think. The underlying mechanism that led to the expansion of this brain region during evolution, however, is not yet understood. A research team headed ...
Evolution
Nov 26, 2014
0
1
