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Evolutionary neurobiology

The neocortex comes together

Nature volume 399, pages 418–419 (1999)Cite this article

A recent meetingFootnote 1on the evolutionary developmental biology of the cerebral cortex brought together evolutionary biologists and comparative and developmental neuroscientists to discuss how the mammalian neocortex evolved. The neocortex is a thick, laminated sheet of neurons, which varies in size and regional differentiation between different mammals, and is especially impressive in humans. The question of how it evolved is challenging, because reptiles and other vertebrates have nothing quite like the neocortex, yet mammals and reptiles evolved from the same early amniotes (stem reptiles).

*Novartis Foundation Symposium on the Evolutionary Developmental Biology of the Cerebral Cortex, Wellcome Trust Auditorium, London, UK, 20-22 April 1999.

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Figure 1: Two proposed courses for evolution of the mammalian neocortex and the forebrain of reptiles, from forebrain structures of a hypothesized stem amniote (from which both evolved).

Notes

  1. *Novartis Foundation Symposium on the Evolutionary Developmental Biology of the Cerebral Cortex, Wellcome Trust Auditorium, London, UK, 20-22 April 1999.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, 301 Wilson Hall, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, 37240, Tennessee, USA

    Jon H. Kaas

  2. Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, 855 Monroe Avenue, University of Tennessee, Memphis, 38163, Tennessee, USA

    Anton Reiner

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  1. Jon H. Kaas
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  2. Anton Reiner
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Kaas, J., Reiner, A. The neocortex comes together. Nature 399, 418–419 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/20821

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