Show Notes
Human brain expansion is often discussed in terms of the genetic and molecular innovations that drove uniquely human cognitive abilities. Yet evolution is fundamentally a process of tradeoffs. Disproportionate expansion of forebrain structures increases the demands placed on long-range connectivity, metabolism, and cellular maintenance, imposing costs that scale with brain size. Alex Pollen, associate professor of neurology at UC San Francisco, discusses using stem-cell-derived brain organoids to investigate the development of human-specific connectivity differences in dopaminergic neurons and to test whether these cells deploy compensatory mechanisms to cope with the metabolic and structural demands of large brains. His research findings support a model in which human brain evolution involves not only mechanisms driving greater computational capacity, but also the emergence of cellular adaptations that mitigate the costs of large, highly connected brains. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 41357]
More from CARTA - Anthropogeny (Audio)
Ajit Varki, Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Cellular & Molecular Medicine, Co-Director of CARTA, and Co-Director of the Glycobiology Research and Training Center at the University of California, San Diego, focuses on a family of cell surface sugars called the sialic acids, and their roles in biology, evolution and disease. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 21987]
Genevieve Konopka is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern Medical Center. The focus of her research is elucidating how developmental signaling pathways are disrupted in neuropsychiatric illnesses, and identifying human-specific pathways that are vulnerable to neuropsychiatric disease. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 21986]
Yoav Gilad is Associate Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. He studies genetic and regulatory differences between humans and our close evolutionary relatives, with the long-term goal of identifying the genetic basis for human-specific traits, including genetic variation that underlies higher susceptibility to certain diseases and disorders in humans than in other primates. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 21985]
Katherine Pollard, Associate Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes and Associate Professor of Biostatistics at UC San Francisco, specializes in evolutionary genomics, in particular identifying genome sequences that differ significantly between or within species and their relationship to biomedical traits. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 21984]
Alysson Muotri, Assistant Professor at UC San Diego, focuses on human brain development and evolution, exploring mobile elements as generators of neuronal diversity. He is also interested in modeling neurological diseases using human induced pluripotent stem cells. Series: "CARTA - Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny" [Science] [Show ID: 21983]