What makes the human brain different from that of other primates has long been a question. A new study suggests that the answer may be in a surprising twist of evolutionary fate: one of the brain’s ...

Despite lacking a hippocampus entirely—and having diverged from the mammalian lineage roughly 400 million years ago—larval ...

Researchers have used a new human reference genome, which includes many duplicated and repeat sequences left out of the original human genome draft, to identify genes that make the human brain ...

The brain’s hemispheres are specialized for efficiency. Modern neuroscience shows lateralization enhances function without ...

The placenta and the hormones it produces may have played a crucial role in the evolution of the human brain, while also leading to the behavioral traits that have made human societies able to thrive ...

The human brain's soft folds and ridges, arising in early development and continuing through the first 18 months of life, are ...

For more than a century, scientists have treated the brain as the undisputed command center of human evolution, with the rest of the body cast in supporting roles. A wave of new microbiome research is ...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be the result of millions of years of evolution. Rapid neuronal evolution in humans is likely ASD’s genetic cause, new research suggests. Though autism can cause ...

The microorganisms in our gastrointestinal tract–the gut microbiome can exert a profound influence on the human body, and scientists are learning more about exactly how certain microbes can impact us.

A new study from Northwestern University is reshaping how scientists think about brain evolution. The research suggests that the gut microbiome does more than aid digestion. It may also influence how ...