How did humans develop larger brains?
Two teams of researchers have identified a gene family called NOTCH2NL that appears to play an important role in human-specific cortex development and may have been a driving force in the evolution of our large brains. The evolution of larger brains, in the last 3 million years, has played an important role in our ability as a species to think, problem-solve, and develop culture. The researchers have found that NOTCH2NL can substantially expand the population of cortical stem cells, which in turn generate more neurons, making the human brain larger. The findings have been published in the journal, Cell .
