New York, Nov 18: Human brains have evolved to be more responsive to environmental influences than chimpanzee brains, which may account for part of human evolution, says a new study.
The findings provide insight into why humans are capable of adapting to various environments and cultures.
The research team studied 218 human brains and 206 chimpanzee brains to compare two things: brain size and organisation as related to genetic similarity.
The researchers found that human and chimpanzee brain size were both greatly influenced by genetics.
In contrast, the findings related to brain organisation revealed key differences between chimpanzees and humans.
In chimpanzees, brain organisation is also highly inherited, but in humans this is not the case.
