Sousa André M M, Meyer Kyle A, Santpere Gabriel, Gulden Forrest O, Sestan Nenad
Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Department of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Genetics, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Section of Comparative Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Program in Cellular Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration and Repair, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Cell. 2017 Jul 13;170(2):226-247. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.06.036.
The nervous system-in particular, the brain and its cognitive abilities-is among humans' most distinctive and impressive attributes. How the nervous system has changed in the human lineage and how it differs from that of closely related primates is not well understood. Here, we consider recent comparative analyses of extant species that are uncovering new evidence for evolutionary changes in the size and the number of neurons in the human nervous system, as well as the cellular and molecular reorganization of its neural circuits. We also discuss the developmental mechanisms and underlying genetic and molecular changes that generate these structural and functional differences. As relevant new information and tools materialize at an unprecedented pace, the field is now ripe for systematic and functionally relevant studies of the development and evolution of human nervous system specializations.
神经系统，尤其是大脑及其认知能力，是人类最独特且令人印象深刻的属性之一。人类谱系中神经系统是如何变化的，以及它与亲缘关系密切的灵长类动物的神经系统有何不同，目前还不太清楚。在这里，我们考虑了对现存物种的最新比较分析，这些分析正在揭示人类神经系统中神经元大小和数量的进化变化的新证据，以及其神经回路的细胞和分子重组。我们还讨论了产生这些结构和功能差异的发育机制以及潜在的遗传和分子变化。随着相关新信息和工具以前所未有的速度出现，该领域现在已经成熟，可以对人类神经系统特化的发育和进化进行系统的、与功能相关的研究。
