大脑进化对生物医学科学的相关性。
The relevance of brain evolution for the biomedical sciences.
作者信息
Smulders Tom V
机构信息
Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Henry Wellcome Building for Neuroecology, Framlington Place, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE2 4HH, UK.
出版信息
Biol Lett. 2009 Feb 23;5(1):138-40. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0521.
Most biomedical neuroscientists realize the importance of the study of brain evolution to help them understand the differences and similarities between their animal model of choice and the human brains in which they are ultimately interested. Many think of evolution as a linear process, going from simpler brains, as those of rats, to more complex ones, as those of humans. However, in reality, every extant species' brain has undergone as long a period of evolution as has the human brain, and each brain has its own species-specific adaptations. By understanding the variety of existing brain types, we can more accurately reconstruct the brains of common ancestors, and understand which brain traits (of humans as well as other species) are derived and which are ancestral. This understanding also allows us to identify convergently evolved traits, which are crucial in formulating hypotheses about structure-function relationships in the brain. A thorough understanding of the processes and patterns of brain evolution is essential to generalizing findings from 'model species' to humans, which is the backbone of modern biomedical science.
大多数生物医学神经科学家意识到研究大脑进化对于帮助他们理解所选动物模型与他们最终感兴趣的人类大脑之间的异同的重要性。许多人认为进化是一个线性过程，从像大鼠那样较简单的大脑发展到像人类那样更复杂的大脑。然而，实际上，每个现存物种的大脑都经历了与人类大脑一样漫长的进化过程，并且每个大脑都有其特定物种的适应性变化。通过了解现存大脑类型的多样性，我们可以更准确地重建共同祖先的大脑，并了解哪些大脑特征（人类以及其他物种的）是衍生而来的，哪些是祖传的。这种理解还使我们能够识别趋同进化的特征，这对于构建关于大脑结构 - 功能关系的假设至关重要。全面了解大脑进化的过程和模式对于将“模型物种”的研究结果推广到人类至关重要，而这是现代生物医学科学的核心。
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