C R Biol. 2022 Dec 8;345(2):57-75. doi: 10.5802/crbiol.92.
Recent advances in neurobiology, paleontology, and paleogenetics allow us to associate changes in brain size and organization with three main "moments" of increased behavioral complexity and, more speculatively, language development. First, Australopiths display a significant increase in brain size relative to the great apes and an incipient extension of postnatal brain development. However, their cortical organization remains essentially similar to that of apes. Second, over the last 2 My, with two notable exceptions, brain size increases dramatically, partly in relation to changes in body size. Differential enlargements and reorganizations of cortical areas lay the foundation for the "language-ready" brain and cumulative culture of later Homo species. Third, in Homo sapiens, brain size remains fairly stable over the last 300,000 years but an important cerebral reorganization takes place. It affects the frontal and temporal lobes, the parietal areas and the cerebellum and resulted in a more globular shape of the brain. These changes are associated, among others, with an increased development of long-distance-horizontal-connections. A few regulatory genetic events took place in the course of this hominization process with, in particular, enhanced neuronal proliferation and global brain connectivity.
神经生物学、古生物学和古遗传学的最新进展使我们能够将大脑大小和组织的变化与行为复杂性增加的三个主要“时刻”联系起来，更具推测性的是与语言发展联系起来。首先，南方古猿的大脑大小相对于大猿类有显著增加，并且出现了出生后大脑发育的初步扩展。然而，它们的皮质组织仍然与猿类基本相似。其次，在过去的 200 万年中，除了两个显著的例外，大脑大小显著增加，部分与身体大小的变化有关。皮质区域的差异扩大和重组为“语言准备”的大脑和后来人类物种的累积文化奠定了基础。第三，在智人（ Homo sapiens ）中，大脑大小在过去的 30 万年中相对稳定，但发生了重要的大脑重组。它影响额叶和颞叶、顶叶区域和小脑，导致大脑形状更呈球形。这些变化与远距离水平连接的发展增加等有关。在这个人类化过程中发生了一些调节基因事件，特别是增强了神经元增殖和全脑连接。
