The Lives of the Brain: Human Evolution and the Organ of Mind

351 Pages·2006·1.75 MB·English

by  John S. Allen

The Lives of the Brain

T H E L I V E S O F T H E B R A I N
Human Evolution and the Organ of Mind
JOHN S. ALLEN
TheBelknapPressofHarvardUniversityPress
Cambridge,Massachusetts,andLondon,England 2009
Copyright©2009bythePresidentandFellowsofHarvardCollege
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Allen,JohnS.(JohnScott),1961–
Thelivesofthebrain : humanevolutionandtheorganofmind / JohnS.Allen.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-674-03534-8(alk.paper)
1.Brain—Evolution. 2.Brain—Growth. 3.Humanevolution. I.Title.
QP376.A42252009
612.8′2—dc22 2009021339
To Ralph Holloway, whose writings on
human brain evolution over the past four decades
deserve to be read and re-read

Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 TheHumanBraininBrief 6
3 BrainSize 44
4 TheFunctionalEvolutionoftheBrain 82
5 ThePlasticBrain 120
6 TheMolecularEvolutionoftheBrain 148
7 TheEvolutionofFeedingBehavior 177
8 TheAgingBrain 202
9 LanguageandBrainEvolution 232
10 OptimismandtheEvolutionoftheBrain 273
References 281
Acknowledgments 327
Index 329

Figures
2.1 Variationinnormaladulthumanbrains 8
2.2 Themajorlobesandsectorsofthehumanbrain 13
2.3 Themajorfissuresandsulciofthehumanbrain 18
2.4 Tenbrainsaveragedintoacommonanatomicalspace 21
2.5 Distributionofprimaryandassociationcortexinthehuman
cerebrum 22
2.6 Brodmann’sclassiccytoarchitecturalmapsofthehuman
cerebrum 24
2.7 Thehumanlimbicsystem 29
2.8 Contrastingperspectivesinevolutionaryneuroscience 32
2.9 Thewhite-matterfibertractsrunninginthemid-sagittalplane 41
3.1 The“cerebralrubicon” 47
3.2 The“fit”ofthebrainwithintheskull 52
3.3 Three-dimensionalCTscansofthecranialspaceofchimpanzee
andhumanskulls 56
3.4 Hominidphylogeny 59
3.5 CranialcapacitiesandEQsinvarioushominidspecies
acrosstime 60
3.6 Theshapeoftheendocranium 64
3.7 Europeanendocastsfromthelatterpartofthehominidfossil
record 65