Cerebellum, not the neocortex the “seat of all humanity” : Study

A team of researchers say that the cerebellum, not the neocortex, is the "seat of all humanity" and what truly helped us become more than apes millions of years ago.

Though the suggestion went entirely against traditional neuroscience and evolutionary theories, a recent study showed that the team had some strong evidence to back their claim.

The study, published recently in the journal Current Biology, details how the cerebellum grew much faster than the neocortex in our ape ancestors, suggesting it was that part of the brain that first led to some distinctly human behaviors and thought.

Rob Barton of Durham University and Chris Venditti, of the University of Reading in the UK, looked very closely at what experts believed were the brains of our distant ape and monkey ancestors.

They observed that during the evolution of monkeys, the neocortex and cerebellum had grown in tandem, with one complementing the other.

For instance, neuroscientists had known that both parts of the brain were most likely involved with motor control and language, with the neocortex also involved in higher function such as sensory perception, spatial reasoning, and even conscious thought - which was what led theorists to believe that it was what truly made man distinct from other species.

However, the cerebellum is likewise involved in some pretty important stuff.

The finding might change what was considered special about the human brain, according to scientists.

The unique mental abilities of humans had so far been associated with the cerebral cortex, which makes up about three-quarters of the human brain's mass.

The largest part of the human cerebral cortex is the neocortex, which is said to be key to conscious thought, sensory perception and language.

However, the cerebellum held four times more neurons than the neocortex, suggesting that the changes it went through over time might have played an important role in human evolution as well.

According to Barton, their earlier work showed that evolutionary expansion of the cortex and the cerebellum were intimately linked in mammalian evolution - when one changed, so did the other.

Prior research suggested that in addition to controlling movements, the human cerebellum might also be linked to a much wider range of complex mental functions than thought.

"In humans, the cerebellum contains about 70 billion neurons," Barton said in a statement. "Nobody really knows what all these neurons are for, but they must be doing something important."