14 DAY TRIAL // Experts believe they may have found the gene that is responsible for the development of the human brain in its current configuration. This little piece of genetic material is apparently in charge of producing brain convolutions.
These are structures resembling deep fissures inside our brains. What they do is they increase brain size, allowing us to become capable of rational and abstract thoughts and thinking. Experts say that a single gene may be primarily responsible for these abilities.
Without it, the surface of the human brain would be smooth, without any creases or convolutions. The conclusion belongs to a new study, which was conducted by an international collaboration of scientists.
The researchers, from Turkey and the Yale University School of Medicine, in the US, discovered that the activities of the gene laminin gamma3 (LAMC3) appear to be responsible for the development of these essential structures in the brain.
Details of their investigation appear in the May 15 online issue of the top journal Nature Genetics. The new study was conducted on patients with brain abnormalities, where portions of the cerebral cortex feature no convolutions.
Genetic analysis of these people revealed the deletion of two variants of the LAMC3 gene. This was primarily evidenced on a Turkish patient, but was also confirmed in subsequent studies of two other individuals with the same condition.
“The demonstration of the fundamental role of this gene in human brain development affords us a step closer to solve the mystery of the crown jewel of creation, the cerebral cortex,” Murat Gunel explains, quoted by Science Blog.
The expert, a professor of genetics and neurobiology at Yale, is also the co-director of the Neurogenetics Program and the Nixdorff-German professor of neurosurgery at the university. He is the senior author of the new research paper as well.
“Although the same gene is present in lower organisms with smooth brains such as mice, somehow over time, it has evolved to gain novel functions that are fundamental for human occipital cortex formation and its mutation leads to the loss of surface convolutions, a hallmark of the human brain,” Gunel concludes.
Interestingly, for all their importance, no studies have thus far been able to reveal the mystery of how neural convolutions appear. The fact remains that they allow humans to have extreme intelligence and cognitive capabilities, without a head 5 feet in diameter.
The main difference between our brains and those of primates is that the latter do not have such deep convolutions, and are therefore incapable of experiencing the same degree of abstract thought we are capable of, scientists say.