Rilling James K
Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 2008;Suppl 47:2-32. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.20947.
Many of the most distinctive attributes of our species are a product of our brains. To understand the function, development, variability, and evolution of the human brain, we must engage with the field of neuroscience. Neuroscientific methods can be used to investigate research topics that are of special interest to anthropologists, such as the neural bases of primate behavioral diversity, human brain evolution, and human brain development. Traditional neuroscience methods had to rely on investigation of postmortem brains, as well as invasive studies in living nonhuman primates. However, recent neuroimaging methods have made it possible to compare living human and nonhuman primate brains using noninvasive techniques such as structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, and diffusion tensor imaging. These methods are providing an integrated picture of brain structure and function that was not previously available. With a combination of these traditional and modern neuroscience methods, we are beginning to explore and understand the neural bases of some of the most distinctive cognitive and behavioral attributes of the human species, including language, tool use, altruism, and mental self-projection, and we can now begin to propose plausible scenarios by which the neural substrates supporting these human specializations evolved from pre-existing neural circuitry serving related functions in common ancestors we shared with the living nonhuman primates. Consideration of the process of neurodevelopment suggests plausible mechanisms by which the highly encephalized human brain might have evolved. Neurodevelopmental studies also demonstrate that experience can shape both brain structure and function, providing a mechanism by which people of different cultures learn to act and think differently. Finally, not only can anthropologists benefit from neuroscience, neuroscience can benefit from the more sophisticated concept of evolution that anthropology offers, including an appreciation of evolutionary diversity as well as consideration of the process by which the human brain was formed during evolution.
我们这个物种的许多最独特的特征都是大脑的产物。要了解人类大脑的功能、发育、变异性和进化，我们必须涉足神经科学领域。神经科学方法可用于研究人类学家特别感兴趣的研究课题，例如灵长类动物行为多样性的神经基础、人类大脑进化和人类大脑发育。传统的神经科学方法不得不依赖于对死后大脑的研究，以及对活体非人类灵长类动物的侵入性研究。然而，最近的神经成像方法使得使用非侵入性技术（如结构和功能磁共振成像、正电子发射断层扫描和扩散张量成像）来比较活体人类和非人类灵长类动物的大脑成为可能。这些方法正在提供一幅以前无法获得的大脑结构和功能的综合图景。结合这些传统和现代神经科学方法，我们开始探索和理解人类物种一些最独特的认知和行为特征的神经基础，包括语言、工具使用、利他主义和心理自我投射，并且我们现在可以开始提出合理的设想，即支持这些人类特化的神经基质是如何从我们与现存非人类灵长类动物共有的共同祖先中执行相关功能的预先存在的神经回路进化而来的。对神经发育过程的思考提出了高度发达的人类大脑可能进化的合理机制。神经发育研究还表明，经验可以塑造大脑结构和功能，提供了一种机制，不同文化背景的人借此学会以不同的方式行动和思考。最后，人类学家不仅可以从神经科学中受益，神经科学也可以从人类学提供的更复杂的进化概念中受益，包括对进化多样性的认识以及对人类大脑在进化过程中形成的过程的思考。
