Bruner Emiliano
Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e dell'Uomo, Università La Sapienza, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy.
J Hum Evol. 2004 Nov;47(5):279-303. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2004.03.009.
Paleoneurology concerns the study and analysis of fossil endocasts. Together with cranial capacity and discrete anatomical features, shape can be analysed to consider the spatial relationships between structures and to investigate the endocranial structural system. A sample of endocasts from fossil specimens of the genus Homo has been analysed using traditional metrics and 2D geometric morphometrics based on lateral projections of endocranial shape. The maximum and frontal widths show a size-related pattern of variation shared by all the taxa considered. Furthermore, as cranial capacity increases in the non-modern morphotypes there is a general endocranial vertical stretching (mainly centred at the anterior ascending circumvolution) with flattening and relative shortening of the parietal areas. This pattern could have involved some structural stress between brain development and vault bones at the parietal midsagittal profile in the heavy encephalised Neandertals. In contrast, modern humans show a species-specific neomorphic hypertrophy of the parietal volumes, leading to a dorsal growth and ventral flexion (convolution) and consequent globularity of the whole structure. Brain tensors such as the falx cerebri have been hypothesised to represent one of the main physical constraints on morphogenetic trajectories, with additional influences from cranial base structures. The neurofunctional inferences discussed here stress the role of the parietal areas in the visuo-spatial coordination and integration, which can be involved in higher cerebral functions and related to conceptual thinking.
古神经学关注对化石脑模型的研究与分析。结合脑容量和离散的解剖特征，可以对形状进行分析，以考量结构之间的空间关系，并研究颅腔内部结构系统。已使用基于颅腔内部形状侧视图的传统测量指标和二维几何形态测量学方法，对来自智人属化石标本的一组脑模型进行了分析。最大宽度和额宽呈现出一种与大小相关的变化模式，为所有被研究的分类单元所共有。此外，在非现代形态类型中，随着脑容量增加，颅腔内部普遍存在垂直拉伸（主要集中在前升回旋处），同时顶叶区域变平并相对缩短。在脑容量较大的尼安德特人中，这种模式可能在顶叶矢状中线轮廓处的脑发育与颅骨之间造成了一些结构应力。相比之下，现代人类表现出顶叶区域特有的新形态肥大，导致其背侧生长和腹侧弯曲（脑回），进而使整个结构呈球形。诸如大脑镰等脑张量被认为是形态发生轨迹的主要物理限制因素之一，颅底结构也有额外影响。此处讨论的神经功能推断强调了顶叶区域在视觉空间协调与整合中的作用，这可能涉及更高层次的脑功能并与概念性思维相关。
