Abstract
THE BRAIN OF NEANDERTHAL MAN.—Prof. R. Anthony of Paris, who has for some time been engaged in the study of the endocranial cast of the skull from La Chapelle aux Saints, has published a summary of his results in the Bulletin of the Societe d'Anthro-pologie of Paris. He compares the brain of Neanderthal man with that of the primates and of modern man in some considerable detail. Subject to the limitation that material is scanty and that our information is derived from Europe only, and further that Neanderthal man represents a vanished race rather than a stage in human evolution, it would appear that by the middle Pleistocene, or even before, man had already developed a brain of normal volume, and the essential features of the Neopallium had become apparent. The distinctive characters of the Neanderthal brain are its form as a whole and certain details in the folds which recall more primitive types. As regards the intellectual capacity of Neanderthal man, while the volume of the brain would support a favourable view of his intelligence, allowance must be made for the character of the convolutions, which are such as to suggest a mentality of low development. The frontal lobes, the centres of intellectual development, are restricted as compared with modern man. On the other hand, the parietal areas of association which are connected with vision and hearing are well developed.
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Research Items. Nature 113, 207–209 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/113207a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/113207a0