瑞士苏黎世大学Christoph P. E. Zollikofer、Marcia S. Ponce de León小组近日取得一项新成果。经过不懈努力，他们揭示了早期人类的大脑结构。2021年4月9日，国际学术期刊《科学》发表了这一成果。

研究人员发现非洲和西亚（Dmanisi）早期人类的大脑中保留了原始的、类似于猿的额叶组织。相比之下，在150万年后出现的非洲智人以及所有东南亚直立人，则都表现出一种进化的、更人性化的大脑组织。额叶重组曾被认为是非洲最早人类的标志，因此进化相对较晚，并且其进化时间处于智人首次在非洲散布之后。

据介绍，现代人类的大脑在大小、形状和皮层组织方面都与大猿类大脑不同，特别是在与复杂认知任务（如社会认知、工具使用和语言）相关的额叶区域。然而对进化过程中这些差异出现的时间存在争议。

附：英文原文

Title: The primitive brain of early Homo

Author: Marcia S. Ponce de León, Thibault Bienvenu, Assaf Marom, Silvano Engel, Paul Tafforeau, José Luis Alatorre Warren, David Lordkipanidze, Iwan Kurniawan, Delta Bayu Murti, Rusyad Adi Suriyanto, Toetik Koesbardiati, Christoph P. E. Zollikofer

Issue&Volume: 2021/04/09

Abstract: The brains of modern humans differ from those of great apes in size, shape, and cortical organization, notably in frontal lobe areas involved in complex cognitive tasks, such as social cognition, tool use, and language. When these differences arose during human evolution is a question of ongoing debate. Here, we show that the brains of early Homo from Africa and Western Asia (Dmanisi) retained a primitive, great ape–like organization of the frontal lobe. By contrast, African Homo younger than 1.5 million years ago, as well as all Southeast Asian Homo erectus, exhibited a more derived, humanlike brain organization. Frontal lobe reorganization, once considered a hallmark of earliest Homo in Africa, thus evolved comparatively late, and long after Homo first dispersed from Africa.

DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz0032

Source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6538/165