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The Human Neocortex Isn’t as Special as We Thought
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Uploaded: | 2021-07-22 |
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For a long time, scientists considered the neocortex the brainiest part of the human brain – an obvious candidate for the thing that makes us unique. But in some ways, it’s not that different from other mammals’ brains. So researchers have started looking at other places to figure out what makes us distinctly human.
Hosted by: Hank Green
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SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at https://www.scishowtangents.org
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Sources:
https://journals.biologists.com/dev/article/141/1/11/46137/How-unique-is-the-human-neocortex
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020740320304963
https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1206
https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/125/8/1829/332500
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393201000197
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661307002537
https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/56/9/988.full.pdf
https://bit.ly/3rqVOvD
https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/122/2/199/357437?login=true
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/279/5348/220.abstract
https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ar.a.20256
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnevo.2011.00011/full
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.38.020187.001021
https://elifesciences.org/articles/41250.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.06.008
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8682173/
https://www.healthpages.org/anatomy-function/brain-anatomy/
https://www.visiblebody.com/learn/nervous/brain
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Cerebellum/RwR94p9wS-8C?hl=en&gbpv=0
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.neuro.31.060407.125606
https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/120/10/1753/262949?login=true
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-07017-005
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(08)60962-0
https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1009506
https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2012112
https://doi.org/10.1080/14734220701332486
https://europepmc.org/article/med/9118192
Images:
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/medical-illustrate-gm484757150-71487927
https://www.flickr.com/photos/144383876@N03/28525474360
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/human-brain-anatomical-model-3q-front-right-gm999845990-270387598
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/happy-asian-woman-stands-with-modern-electric-scooter-talking-on-phone-in-city-street-pretty-girl-riding-an-electric-scooter-in-the-summer-on-the-street-and-talking-by-phone-rki2fe1hdkq7we9ev
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prefrontal_cortex_(left)_animation.gif
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Insular_cortex.gif
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/brainstorm-106-a-rotating-human-brain-electrically-charged-with-thought-loop-b5kxq6kvmjdkzj7wo
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/tiny-endemic-nocturnal-mouse-lemur-southern-madagascar-gm476115012-66387021
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/brain-anatomy-vector-gm1162837999-319109740
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/cheerful-positive-hipster-black-female-cyclist-riding-on-bike-through-park-exploring-beautiful-summer-nature-enjoying-freedom-and-active-lifestyle-while-spending-leisure-during-weekend-outdoor-bwcvcoec_kpf4nmjd
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DNA_methylation.jpg
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/damage-to-mitochondria-dna-and-rna-chromosome-genetic-disorder-bqq6spl8fjdau54s7
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/monkey-hanging-on-liana-in-lowland-he-b-ek5xizlgper4
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/professional-tools-set-packed-in-the-hard-case-wrenches-screwdriver-bits-drive-sockets-and-other-tools-in-the-set-top-view-flat-lay-syzm15_r8kc1rq4zq
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/pretty-girl-with-pale-complexion-talking-to-someone-r8bckcre-j2ogiy5s
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/human-brain-brightly-lit-against-the-sky-symbolizes-ideas-creativity-and-intelligence-gm1257575068-368594393
For a long time, scientists considered the neocortex the brainiest part of the human brain – an obvious candidate for the thing that makes us unique. But in some ways, it’s not that different from other mammals’ brains. So researchers have started looking at other places to figure out what makes us distinctly human.
Hosted by: Hank Green
----------
Support SciShow Psych by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SciShowPsych
SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It's called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at https://www.scishowtangents.org
----------
Become a Patron and have your name featured in the description of every SciShow Psych episode! https://www.patreon.com/SciShowPsych
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow
Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow
----------
Sources:
https://journals.biologists.com/dev/article/141/1/11/46137/How-unique-is-the-human-neocortex
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020740320304963
https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1206
https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/125/8/1829/332500
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393201000197
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364661307002537
https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/jnnp/56/9/988.full.pdf
https://bit.ly/3rqVOvD
https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/122/2/199/357437?login=true
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/279/5348/220.abstract
https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/ar.a.20256
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnevo.2011.00011/full
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.38.020187.001021
https://elifesciences.org/articles/41250.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.06.008
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8682173/
https://www.healthpages.org/anatomy-function/brain-anatomy/
https://www.visiblebody.com/learn/nervous/brain
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Cerebellum/RwR94p9wS-8C?hl=en&gbpv=0
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.neuro.31.060407.125606
https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/120/10/1753/262949?login=true
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2000-07017-005
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6123(08)60962-0
https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1009506
https://www.nature.com/articles/npp2012112
https://doi.org/10.1080/14734220701332486
https://europepmc.org/article/med/9118192
Images:
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/medical-illustrate-gm484757150-71487927
https://www.flickr.com/photos/144383876@N03/28525474360
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/human-brain-anatomical-model-3q-front-right-gm999845990-270387598
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/happy-asian-woman-stands-with-modern-electric-scooter-talking-on-phone-in-city-street-pretty-girl-riding-an-electric-scooter-in-the-summer-on-the-street-and-talking-by-phone-rki2fe1hdkq7we9ev
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prefrontal_cortex_(left)_animation.gif
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Insular_cortex.gif
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/brainstorm-106-a-rotating-human-brain-electrically-charged-with-thought-loop-b5kxq6kvmjdkzj7wo
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/tiny-endemic-nocturnal-mouse-lemur-southern-madagascar-gm476115012-66387021
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/brain-anatomy-vector-gm1162837999-319109740
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/cheerful-positive-hipster-black-female-cyclist-riding-on-bike-through-park-exploring-beautiful-summer-nature-enjoying-freedom-and-active-lifestyle-while-spending-leisure-during-weekend-outdoor-bwcvcoec_kpf4nmjd
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DNA_methylation.jpg
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/damage-to-mitochondria-dna-and-rna-chromosome-genetic-disorder-bqq6spl8fjdau54s7
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/monkey-hanging-on-liana-in-lowland-he-b-ek5xizlgper4
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/professional-tools-set-packed-in-the-hard-case-wrenches-screwdriver-bits-drive-sockets-and-other-tools-in-the-set-top-view-flat-lay-syzm15_r8kc1rq4zq
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/pretty-girl-with-pale-complexion-talking-to-someone-r8bckcre-j2ogiy5s
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/human-brain-brightly-lit-against-the-sky-symbolizes-ideas-creativity-and-intelligence-gm1257575068-368594393
This episode is sponsored by Fabulous, an app that helps you form healthy habits that stick.
You can check out the link in description to get a free one-week trial and 25% off a Fabulous subscription! [♪ INTRO]. Picture a brain in your brain.
That’s wild. So your mind’s eye is probably showing you a pink wrinkly thing, and that wrinkly outer layer is called the neocortex. For a long time, scientists considered the neocortex the brainiest part of the human brain, an obvious candidate for the thing that makes us unique.
It’s the biggest part of our brain, and it has those lovely wrinkles that many smaller mammals just don’t have. But in some ways, it’s not actually that different from other mammals’ brains. So researchers have started looking at other places to figure out what makes us distinctly human.
Move over, neocortex, it’s time to talk about the underrated cerebellum. Now, there are good reasons why scientists thought our neocortex was a major thing that made us stand out as a species. It takes up about 80% of the human brain’s mass.
Plus, it's divided into about 200 areas that are specialized for different functions. For comparison, early mammals probably had about 20. Those 200-ish areas are responsible for a lot of functions we think of as characteristically human, like making plans, speaking, and understanding language.
But as scientists dug deeper, they found some things that weren’t all that unique. Like, many specialized regions in our neocortex perform functions we do share with other primates. For example, the prefrontal cortex is in charge of planning and inhibitory control.
And the insula is involved in gut reactions. In fact, some functions seem to be shared across nearly all mammals, like visual and auditory systems, and areas for sensory and motor control. And even though our overall brains are 238% bigger than you’d expect for a primate of our size, our neocortex isn’t out of proportion to the rest of our brain.
Which is what you would expect if it was what made it special. I mean, even a mouse lemur has a frontal cortex that's about the size you’d expect based on their overall brain. And humans like to fancy ourselves as, well, fancier than a mouse lemur.
All of this means our neocortex might not be particularly exceptional. And it might not be the only thing that contributes to human intelligence. So scientists have started to look at the second biggest part of the brain.
It's called the cerebellum, and it's located at the back of your skull, just above your spinal cord. The word cerebellum means “little brain.” But even though it’s small, it contains four times more neurons than the neocortex. In humans, the cerebellum is largely responsible for fine motor control and implicit memory.
That's the kind of procedural memory you don't memorize so much as practice, like riding a bike, playing an instrument, or navigating home. Among vertebrates, we actually see the greatest size variation in the cerebellum, not the neocortex. As humans and other apes evolved, the cerebellum expanded much more rapidly than the neocortex, resulting in a cerebellum that is outsized compared to the rest of the brain.
And when you look deeper, you find even more differences. In 2021, researchers published a study that looked at methylation of DNA in human and primate brains. Methylation basically means your DNA gets some chemical hop-ons that can change how genes are expressed.
They found different levels of methylation between humans and primates. But the difference was bigger in samples taken from the cerebellum than from the neocortex. What’s more, the genes that were likely to have more methylation seemed to be related to neuronal growth, plasticity and learning.
If those genes are being fine-tuned through methylation, our brain’s growth and evolution might depend more on the cerebellum than we thought. When we look at the evolution of other animals, we tend to see an enlarged cerebellum associated with more elaborate motor skills. Like, when primates and squirrels get more practice using their forelimbs to climb trees, that can favor a bigger cerebellum.
Which further enhances their motor skills. As humans evolved, the expansion of our cerebellum likely increased our technical capabilities, like our skill in making tools. That’s crucial, because a hallmark of human intelligence is that we make tools better than any other animal.
And we couldn’t do that without an advanced cerebellum helping us plan and coordinate complex sequences of actions. In addition, our cerebellum-fueled technical skills may have driven the development of language and syntax. Speech itself is an extreme fine motor skill, and we do have neural connections between the cerebellum and areas of the cortex involved in language.
Research suggests that the human cerebellum expanded at the same time our language and verbal memory abilities emerged. Which makes sense, because scientists think human language may have evolved largely to help us teach each other how to create tools from stones and plants. The more scientists investigate the cerebellum, the more central it seems to human abilities.
It helps us perform complex actions in a smooth and coordinated way, whether those actions are crafting cooking tools or engaging in cognition and conversation. And it’s considered a “learning machine” capable of predicting outcomes and adapting after making errors. Now that’s not to say the neocortex isn’t really important.
The neocortex and cerebellum are densely linked, and they closely coordinate to produce thoughts and behaviors. So, to discover how humans operate, we need to look at the whole brain. And remember that when it comes to the neocortex, size is not everything.
The more we understand how our brains work, the more we can use that knowledge in our everyday lives. Like changing habits, and building new ones. If you’re looking for ways to add a new thing to your routine, you might want to check out Fabulous,.
Fabulous is the number one self-care and habit forming app on the app store with over 20 million users. It's actually based on behavioral science research. It’s personalized to you, so you can just tell it that you want to stay more hydrated, or take walks every day, and it will help you out.
The first 100 people who click on the link will get a free week trial and 25% off a Fabulous subscription, so you can start building your ideal routine. [♪ OUTRO].
You can check out the link in description to get a free one-week trial and 25% off a Fabulous subscription! [♪ INTRO]. Picture a brain in your brain.
That’s wild. So your mind’s eye is probably showing you a pink wrinkly thing, and that wrinkly outer layer is called the neocortex. For a long time, scientists considered the neocortex the brainiest part of the human brain, an obvious candidate for the thing that makes us unique.
It’s the biggest part of our brain, and it has those lovely wrinkles that many smaller mammals just don’t have. But in some ways, it’s not actually that different from other mammals’ brains. So researchers have started looking at other places to figure out what makes us distinctly human.
Move over, neocortex, it’s time to talk about the underrated cerebellum. Now, there are good reasons why scientists thought our neocortex was a major thing that made us stand out as a species. It takes up about 80% of the human brain’s mass.
Plus, it's divided into about 200 areas that are specialized for different functions. For comparison, early mammals probably had about 20. Those 200-ish areas are responsible for a lot of functions we think of as characteristically human, like making plans, speaking, and understanding language.
But as scientists dug deeper, they found some things that weren’t all that unique. Like, many specialized regions in our neocortex perform functions we do share with other primates. For example, the prefrontal cortex is in charge of planning and inhibitory control.
And the insula is involved in gut reactions. In fact, some functions seem to be shared across nearly all mammals, like visual and auditory systems, and areas for sensory and motor control. And even though our overall brains are 238% bigger than you’d expect for a primate of our size, our neocortex isn’t out of proportion to the rest of our brain.
Which is what you would expect if it was what made it special. I mean, even a mouse lemur has a frontal cortex that's about the size you’d expect based on their overall brain. And humans like to fancy ourselves as, well, fancier than a mouse lemur.
All of this means our neocortex might not be particularly exceptional. And it might not be the only thing that contributes to human intelligence. So scientists have started to look at the second biggest part of the brain.
It's called the cerebellum, and it's located at the back of your skull, just above your spinal cord. The word cerebellum means “little brain.” But even though it’s small, it contains four times more neurons than the neocortex. In humans, the cerebellum is largely responsible for fine motor control and implicit memory.
That's the kind of procedural memory you don't memorize so much as practice, like riding a bike, playing an instrument, or navigating home. Among vertebrates, we actually see the greatest size variation in the cerebellum, not the neocortex. As humans and other apes evolved, the cerebellum expanded much more rapidly than the neocortex, resulting in a cerebellum that is outsized compared to the rest of the brain.
And when you look deeper, you find even more differences. In 2021, researchers published a study that looked at methylation of DNA in human and primate brains. Methylation basically means your DNA gets some chemical hop-ons that can change how genes are expressed.
They found different levels of methylation between humans and primates. But the difference was bigger in samples taken from the cerebellum than from the neocortex. What’s more, the genes that were likely to have more methylation seemed to be related to neuronal growth, plasticity and learning.
If those genes are being fine-tuned through methylation, our brain’s growth and evolution might depend more on the cerebellum than we thought. When we look at the evolution of other animals, we tend to see an enlarged cerebellum associated with more elaborate motor skills. Like, when primates and squirrels get more practice using their forelimbs to climb trees, that can favor a bigger cerebellum.
Which further enhances their motor skills. As humans evolved, the expansion of our cerebellum likely increased our technical capabilities, like our skill in making tools. That’s crucial, because a hallmark of human intelligence is that we make tools better than any other animal.
And we couldn’t do that without an advanced cerebellum helping us plan and coordinate complex sequences of actions. In addition, our cerebellum-fueled technical skills may have driven the development of language and syntax. Speech itself is an extreme fine motor skill, and we do have neural connections between the cerebellum and areas of the cortex involved in language.
Research suggests that the human cerebellum expanded at the same time our language and verbal memory abilities emerged. Which makes sense, because scientists think human language may have evolved largely to help us teach each other how to create tools from stones and plants. The more scientists investigate the cerebellum, the more central it seems to human abilities.
It helps us perform complex actions in a smooth and coordinated way, whether those actions are crafting cooking tools or engaging in cognition and conversation. And it’s considered a “learning machine” capable of predicting outcomes and adapting after making errors. Now that’s not to say the neocortex isn’t really important.
The neocortex and cerebellum are densely linked, and they closely coordinate to produce thoughts and behaviors. So, to discover how humans operate, we need to look at the whole brain. And remember that when it comes to the neocortex, size is not everything.
The more we understand how our brains work, the more we can use that knowledge in our everyday lives. Like changing habits, and building new ones. If you’re looking for ways to add a new thing to your routine, you might want to check out Fabulous,.
Fabulous is the number one self-care and habit forming app on the app store with over 20 million users. It's actually based on behavioral science research. It’s personalized to you, so you can just tell it that you want to stay more hydrated, or take walks every day, and it will help you out.
The first 100 people who click on the link will get a free week trial and 25% off a Fabulous subscription, so you can start building your ideal routine. [♪ OUTRO].