brain structure humanHumans were granted with an evolutionary edge that differentiated us from other primates and may have helped us become the dominant species on planet Earth. A recent study which scanned the brains of humans and rhesus monkeys found that humans have at least two functional brain networks absent in rhesus monkeys.

Previous genetic research concluded that our ancestors split from those that lead to the evolution of rhesus monkeys some 25 million years ago, and since then brain networks have been added, disappeared or changed function. It’s rather obvious that we humans are capable of much more than our primate relatives, which lead scientists to claim that humans possess specific brain functions that are unique, however conclusive evidence has been absent until now.

The study was conducted by neurophysiologist Wim Vanduffel and colleagues at KU Leuven and Harvard Medical School, and involved functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans to visualise brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow while participants (humans and rhesus monkeys) performed various tasks. Oxygen and blood content delivered to a particular area of the brain differs according to a particular task, thus brain activity can be monitored. Professor Vanduffel explains:



Findings were published in the Journal of Neuroscience.



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