The relatively large brain and expanded cerebral cortex of humans is unusual in the animal
kingdom and is thought to have promoted our adaptability and success as a species. One …

The study of human developmental microcephaly is providing important insights into brain
development. It has become clear that developmental microcephalies are associated with …

Autosomal recessive primary microcephaly (MCPH), historically referred to as Microcephalia
vera, is a genetically and clinically heterogeneous disease. Patients with MCPH typically …

The anatomical basis and adaptive function of the expansion in primate brain size have long
been studied; however, we are only beginning to understand the genetic basis of these …

Adaptive shifts associated with human origins are brought to light as we examine the human
fossil record and study our own genome and that of our closest ape relatives. However, the …

Loss-of-function mutations in the genes associated with primary microcephaly (MCPH)
reduce human brain size by about two-thirds, without producing gross abnormalities in brain …

Brain organoids are stem cell-based self-assembling 3D structures that recapitulate early
events of human brain development. Recent improvements with patient-specific 3D brain …

Background Brain size is a key adaptive trait. It is often assumed that increasing brain size
was a general evolutionary trend in primates, yet recent fossil discoveries have documented …

Cyclin dependent kinase 5 regulatory subunit-associated protein 2 (CDK5RAP2) has gained
attention in the last years following the discovery, in 2005, that recessive mutations cause …

There is a growing appreciation among evolutionary biologists that the rate and tempo of
molecular evolution might often be altered at or near the time of speciation, ie that speciation …