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1 - Reflections on the origins of the human brain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2011

By
Jean-Pierre Changeux
Edited by
Hugo Lagercrantz ,
M. A. Hanson ,
Laura R. Ment  and
Donald M. Peebles
Hugo Lagercrantz
Affiliation:
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm
M. A. Hanson
Affiliation:
Southampton General Hospital
Laura R. Ment
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Donald M. Peebles
Affiliation:
University College London
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Summary

Introduction

Human beings belong to the biological species Homo sapiens. The definition of the species includes the description of the characteristic anatomy and physiology of the body, as well as of the functional organization of the brain together with the multiple facets of behaviors unique to human beings. The human brain is obviously a fascinating object of scientific investigation.

The aim of this chapter is to debate the origins of the human brain. This raises an overwhelming challenge. First of all, one should attempt to delineate what makes the human brain “human,” even in the newborn, and to identify the features that distinguish it from the current living primates and from its fossil antecedents. It is intriguing, on the one hand, to find ways of specifying the universal traits of “human nature” in objective terms. On the other hand, the broad diversity between individuals, in particular as a consequence of their past and recent personal and/or cultural history, raises a second challenge. Does such diversity break the unity of the human brain within the human species?

A tension thus exists in neuroscience, as well as in the humanities, between two main lines of research: one that aims at defining the universal characteristics of the human species, for instance at the level of the infant brain, and the other that stresses the variability of cognitive abilities in adults, such as the language they speak and the social conventions they adopt.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Newborn Brain
Neuroscience and Clinical Applications
 , pp. 1 - 22
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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