WELLCOME IMAGES, MARK LYTHGOE & CHLOE HUTTON
A bevy of genes known to be active during human fetal and infant development first appeared at the same time that the prefrontal cortex—the area of the brain associated with human intelligence and personality—took shape in primates, a new study published yesterday (October 18) in PLoS Biology found. The timing suggests that the new genes may have been intimately tied to the evolution of the human brain.
“This is one of the first studies to look at the role of completely novel genes” in primate brain development, said Eric Vallender, a neurogeneticist at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the study. Previous research has focused on relatively old genes (i.e. genes that are conserved across the animal kingdom and beyond), he said, with ...
