From Monkey Brain to Human Brain: A Fyssen Foundation Symposium
Edited by Stanislas Dehaene, Jean-René Duhamel, Marc D. Hauser and Giacomo Rizzolatti
The extraordinary overlap between human and chimpanzee genomes does not result in an equal overlap between human and chimpanzee thoughts, sensations, perceptions, and emotions; there are considerable similarities but also considerable differences between human and nonhuman primate brains. From Monkey Brain to Human Brain uses the latest findings in cognitive psychology, comparative biology, and neuroscience to look at the complex patterns of convergence and divergence in primate cortical organization and function.
Several chapters examine the use of modern technologies to study primate brains, analyzing the potentials and the limitations of neuroimaging as well as genetic and computational approaches. These methods, which can be applied identically across different species of primates, help to highlight the paradox of nonlinear primate evolution — the fact that major changes in brain size and functional complexity resulted from small changes in the genome. Other chapters identify plausible analogs or homologs in nonhuman primates for such human cognitive functions as arithmetic, reading, theory of mind, and altruism; examine the role of parietofrontal circuits in the production and comprehension of actions; analyze the contributions of the prefrontal and cingulate cortices to cognitive control; and explore to what extent visual recognition and visual attention are related in humans and other primates.
The Fyssen Foundation is dedicated to encouraging scientific inquiry into the cognitive mechanisms that underlie animal and human behavior and has long sponsored symposia on topics of central importance to the cognitive sciences.
2005, 418 p, cloth
ISBN-10: 0-262-04223-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-262-04223-9
Table of Contents and Sample Chapters
About the Editors
Stanislas Dehaene is Director of Research at INSERM’s Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Paris.
Jean-René Duhamel is Director of Research, Institute of Cognitive Science at CNRS, Lyon.
Marc D. Hauser is Professor of Psychology and Codirector of the Mind, Brain, and Behavior Program at Harvard University.
Giacomo Rizzolatti is Professor of Human Physiology at the University of Parma.
I read this book as soon as it was published because i was looking for the published work of one of the most accomplished authors in what is known as social cogntive neuroscience, his name is David I. Perrett.
The book represents an updated mixture of distinct levels of comaprison between human and monkey brains ranging from anatomical studies, dietary influences on brain evolution in both species, homeobox genes, mirror neurons, arithmetic or number sense faculty, tool manipulation… and other share characteristics.
A good inversion!
Comment by Anibal — February 7, 2008 @ 7:47 am