How Humans Develop Larger Brains Than Other Apes
Published:31 Mar.2021 Source:UK Research and Innovation
A new study is the first to identify how human brains grow much larger, with three times as many neurons, compared with chimpanzee and gorilla brains. The study, led by researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, identified a key molecular switch that can make ape brain organoids grow more like human organoids, and vice versa.
The study, published in the journal Cell, compared 'brain organoids' -- 3D tissues grown from stem cells which model early brain development -- that were grown from human, gorilla and chimpanzee stem cells.