ArticleThe Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry2024
Oxygen and the Spark of Human Brain Evolution: Complex Interactions of Metabolism and Cortical Expansion across Development and Evolution.
Article in The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 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
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evolving reservoir computers reveal bidirectional coupling between predictive power and emergent dynamics.Patterns (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- General anaesthesia decreases the uniqueness of brain functional connectivity across individuals and species.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
- The control costs of human brain dynamics.Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- General anaesthesia reduces the uniqueness of brain connectivity across individuals and across species.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- The evolutionary origins of dementia.Journal of Alzheimer's disease reportsReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Scientific theories on the functioning and dysfunction of the human brain require an understanding of its development-before and after birth and through maturation to adulthood-and its evolution. Here we bring together several accounts of human brain evolution by focusing on the central role of oxygen and brain metabolism. We argue that evolutionary expansion of human transmodal association cortices exceeded the capacity of oxygen delivery by the vascular system, which led these brain tissues to rely on nonoxidative glycolysis for additional energy supply. We draw a link between the resulting lower oxygen tension and its effect on cytoarchitecture, which we posit as a key driver of genetic developmental programs for the human brain-favoring lower intracortical myelination and the presence of biosynthetic materials for synapse turnover. Across biological and temporal scales, this protracted capacity for neural plasticity sets the conditions for cognitive flexibility and ongoing learning, supporting complex group dynamics and intergenerational learning that in turn enabled improved nutrition to fuel the metabolic costs of further cortical expansion. Our proposed model delineates explicit mechanistic links among metabolism, molecular and cellular brain heterogeneity, and behavior, which may lead toward a clearer understanding of brain development and its disorders.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.