ReviewAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences2009
In search of a unifying theory of complex brain evolution.
Review in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
66 citing papers in PubMed, 146 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phylogeny of Cortical-Hippocampal Projections Reveals Selective Elimination of Input From Sensory Regions.Hippocampus · 2026Article
- A hierarchical framework for cortical and subcortical gray-matter parcellation across rodents, primates, and humans.Nature communications · 2026Article
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- Adaptations of the axon initial segment in fast-spiking interneurons of the human neocortex support low action potential thresholds.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- TopoNets: High performing vision and language models with brain-like topography.... International Conference on Learning Representations · 2025Article
- Animal models in neuroscience with alternative approaches: Evolutionary, biomedical, and ethical perspectives.Animal models and experimental medicine · 2024Review
- The self-in-the-world map emerged in the primate brain as a basis for Homo sapiens abilities.Development, growth & differentiation · 2024Review
- Article
- Predictability of cortico-cortical connections in the mammalian brain.Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Mapping and comparing fMRI connectivity networks across species.Communications biology · 2023Review
- Fluoxetine plus lithium for treatment of mental health impairment in Long Covid.Discover mental health · 2023Review
- Age-related brain atrophy is not a homogenous process: Different functional brain networks associate differentially with aging and blood factors.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Cortical Morphology and White Matter Tractography of Three Phylogenetically Distant Primates: Evidence for a Simian Elaboration.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2022Article
- The evolution of brain architectures for predictive coding and active inference.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Connectome topology of mammalian brains and its relationship to taxonomy and phylogeny.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- "Natural Laboratory Complex" for novel primate neuroscience.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2022Article
- Training of Motion Control May Not Improve Tool-Manipulation Ability in Rats (Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Convergence of forepaw somatosensory and motor cortical projections in the striatum, claustrum, thalamus, and pontine nuclei of cats.Brain structure & function · 2022Article
- A dual larynx motor networks hypothesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The neocortex is the part of the brain that is involved in perception, cognition, and volitional motor control. In mammals it is a highly dynamic structure that has been dramatically altered in different lineages, and these alterations account for the remarkable variations in behavior that species exhibit. When we consider how this structure changes and becomes more complex in some mammals such as humans, we must also consider how the alterations that occur at macro levels of organization, such as the level of the individual and social system, as well as micro levels of organization, such as the level of neurons, synapses and molecules, impact the neocortex. It is also important to consider the constraints imposed on the evolution of the neocortex. Observations of highly conserved features of cortical organization that all mammals share, as well as the convergent evolution of similar features of organization, indicate that the constraints imposed on the neocortex are pervasive and restrict the avenues along which evolution can proceed. Although both genes and the laws of physics place formidable constraints on the evolution of all animals, humans have evolved a number of mechanisms that allow them to loosen these constraints and often alter the course of their own evolution. While this cortical plasticity is a defining feature of mammalian neocortex, it appears to be exaggerated in humans and could be considered a unique derivation of our species.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.