THE human brain may have shot ahead of its primate predecessors by shifting the activity of a suite of genes into a higher gear. A new analysis of chimp and human brains has discovered that for the small number of genes that differ between chimps and people, 90 per cent are more active in human brains.
Having identified some of these supercharged genes, Carrolee Barlow of the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in La Jolla, California, speculates that our neurons communicate at faster speeds. “It’s like comparing a Volkswagen and a Porsche,” she says. “They are very similar but a…
