The fossil evidence of human brain evolution

Abstract

Paleoneurology deals with the anatomical and morphological analysis of the endocranial cavity in fossil species. Brain size, brain proportions, sulcal patterns, and craniovascular traits can be investigated by comparing living and extinct taxa. Digital anatomy and computed morphometrics represent a major advance in this field, supplying tools for the reconstruction of cranial and endocranial spatial relationships, and for multivariate analyses of the patterns of integration behind the observed phenotypic variability. The study of the relationships between brain and braincase is crucial to understand brain morphology in terms of evolutionary neuroanatomy. In particular, primary neural changes due to intrinsic cerebral factors should be separated from secondary morphological changes due to cranial constraints.