Human Brain Size and its Evolution explained by Wieland Huttner

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During the evolution of primates their brain size, and specifically the size of their cerebral cortex where the higher cognitive functions are located, expanded. Stem cells in the human brain go through a higher number of cell divisions and thus produce a higher number of neurons then do stem cells in the brains of apes. The research presented in this video investigates which evolutionary changes in the genome caused this increase in cell division. WIELAND HUTTNER describes how the research group isolated the relevant human-specific stem cells and, using a new method devised by the group, studied which genes were particularly highly expressed in those cells.
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WIELAND B. HUTTNER is Director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden and Honorary Professor of Neurobiology at Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. For further information on WIELAND HUTTNER and his research visit:

This LT Publication is divided into the following chapters:
0:00 Question
2:47 Method
5:53 Findings
11:43 Relevance
12:26 Outlook

[shineh]

Your explanation makes it easy for a layperson to understand the bases of higher cognitive function

[mikeynash]

bruh this dude is literally creating "planet of the apes"...

[HeduAI]

Wow! This was mind blowing. Thank you!

[mohammedraheem]

Why did only about half of the mouse embryos brains start to fold, and not all of them?

[thraxhunter]

Get some orangutans, express this gene, and microdose psilocybin. I imagine there would be interesting developments.

[anttumurikka]

can we add stem cells or something else way, more brain cells? 600 IQ could be handy for big questions

[rajeevdsamuel]

a high saturated fat diet is key to brain evolution and size

[rosequreshi]

if we know the exact position of mutuation we can possibly cure certain mental disorders by causing this mutuation through some drugs that enhances this mutation

[jesteryte]

I myself can't wait for the genius ferrets to arrive..

[pascal]

title should be: how we engineered smarter mice! with human dna

[pascal]

how a single mutation changed humans forever

[KelvinW]

I was just waiting for him to say "And here we have Jan, the first talking mouse! What do you think abour our research, Jan?"

[LarryThePhotoGuy]

You mean it might be possible to fix stupid?

[cloudsvaitsis]

Wow, so does mice actually got smarter?

[JonGreene-dgdl]

They should have had "Shock The Monkey", Peter Gabriel song, playing in the Great

[captainbabs]

Thanks for your experiment and explanation

[Kinetic-Energy]

Very well detailed
The research work of American Biologists Paul McClean in the 50's on the R complex & its early stages of development in the brain, sourced by Carl Sagan in 'Cosmos' is also extremely educational

[johngilmour]

the human brain records and archives everything we experience, creating partitions that hold memory archives, as the experiences demand, and this phenomenom will be passed on to each generation, through their genome! my opinion!

[matjohn]

I’m very interested in the natural process of the way humans interact with each other and the natural processes of the environment and how humans should reinterpreted natural ways of looking after the environment instead of leading agricultural with western farming practices that don’t work for every environment and work with nature because when have we won against nature never

[RARa]

Anyone knows what's the status of their research now. Everything he said validated or discarded. This gene ARHGA...still considered to be the catalyst for brain enlargement?