Gómez-Robles, A;
Sherwood, CC;
(2017)
Human brain evolution: How the increase of brain plasticity made us a cultural species.
Metode
, 2017
(7)
pp. 35-43.
10.7203/metode.7.7602.
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Abstract
Why are humans so different from other primate species? What makes us so capable of creating language, art and music? The specializations in human brain anatomy that are responsible for our unique behavioral and cognitive traits evolved over a very short period of evolutionary time (between six and eight million years). Recent evidence suggests that, alongside a reorganization of the brain and an increase in its size, neural plasticity may also play a major role in explaining the evolutionary history of our species. Plasticity is the propensity of the brain to be molded by external influences, including the ecological, social and cultural context. The impact of these environmental influences in shaping human behavior has been long recognized, but it has been only recently that scientists have started discovering the more pronounced plasticity of human brains compared to our close relatives.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Human brain evolution: How the increase of brain plasticity made us a cultural species |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.7203/metode.7.7602 |
| Additional information: | © 2017, Universitat de Valencia. All rights reserved. The contents of the magazine are subject to a license Recognition - Non-commercial - No derivative works 3.0 Spain Creative Commons, unless otherwise indicated. |
| Keywords: | Genes; environment; development; altriciality; epigenetics |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10043129 |
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