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Title: Metabolic changes in human brain evolution
Because the human brain is considerably larger than those of other primates, it is not surprising that its energy requirements would far exceed that of any of the species within the order. Recently, the development of stem cell technologies and single-cell transcriptomics provides novel ways to address the question of what specific geno-mic changes underlie the human brain's unique phenotype. In this review, we con-sider what is currently known about human brain metabolism using a variety of methods from brain imaging and stereology to transcriptomics. Next, we examine novel opportunities that stem cell technologies and single-cell transcriptomics pro-vide to further our knowledge of human brain energetics. These new experimental approaches provide the ability to elucidate the functional effects of changes in genetic sequence and expression levels that potentially had a profound impact on the evolution of the human brain.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1750377
PAR ID:
10147096
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Evolutionary anthropology
Volume:
May
ISSN:
1520-6505
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1:12
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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