(New Scientist.com,
25, Sept 2012) - Chimps may be
similar to us in many ways but they can't compete when it comes to brain size.
Now for the first time we can see when the differences emerge by tracking the
brain development of unborn chimps.
As seen in this video, Tomoko Sakai and colleagues from
Kyoto University in Japan subjected a pregnant chimp to a 3D ultrasound to
gather images of the fetus between 14 and 34 weeks of development. The volume
of its growing brain was then compared to that of an unborn human.
The team found that brain size increases in both chimps and
humans until about 22 weeks, but after then only the growth of human brains
continues to accelerate. This suggests that as the brain of modern humans
rapidly evolved, differences between the two species emerged before birth as
well as afterwards.
The researchers now plan to examine how different parts of
the brain develop in the womb, particularly the forebrain, which is responsible
for decision-making, self-awareness and creativity.
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