Chimp vs. human brain (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, December 31, 2013, 15:35 (3981 days ago) @ David Turell

Another 'simpler' explanation of the complexity of the human brain:-"Dr. Sherwood, the George Washington University expert, praised the hypothesis for being "fairly frugal." The emergence of the human mind might not have been a result of a vast number of mutations that altered the fine structure of the brain. Instead, a simple increase in the growth of neurons could have untethered them from their evolutionary anchors, creating the opportunity for the human mind to emerge. "-http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/26/science/in-the-human-brain-size-really-isnt-everything.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131231-Who or what untethered them?-Abstract of original paper:-"The human cerebral cortex is vastly expanded relative to other primates and disproportionately occupied by distributed association regions. Here we offer a hypothesis about how association networks evolved their prominence and came to possess circuit properties vital to human cognition. The rapid expansion of the cortical mantle may have untethered large portions of the cortex from strong constraints of molecular gradients and early activity cascades that lead to sensory hierarchies. What fill the gaps between these hierarchies are densely interconnected networks that widely span the cortex and mature late into development. Limitations of the tethering hypothesis are discussed as well as its broad implications for understanding critical features of the human brain as a byproduct of size scaling."-http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661313002210