Great work from Vagheesh Narasimhan TJ Singh & colleagues on the genetic architecture & evolutionary consequences of the human pelvic form. Supports “the idea that the obstetrical dilemma has played a central role in the co-evolution of the human brain and pelvis”

biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Really nice work by Jewelia Yao Jesse Gomez showing that (visual) representations in distinct cortical lobes undergo distinct developmental trajectories
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

“Chromatin accessibility during human first-trimester neurodevelopment”, across the whole brain. By Camiel Mannens Sten Linnarsson Danielle & colleagues

nature.com/articles/s4158…

Great evo-devo study of the avian pallium by Bassi Zaremba Fernando García-Moreno Kaessmann Lab & collaborators👇

Great read 👇 #cilia

New paper out, for #cerebellum fans. Probing the genetic architecture of cerebellar lobules using the UK Biobank. Very grateful to amaia_cc for her work on this paper. We found new cerebello/cortical correlations + signal linked to introgression ‘deserts’
nature.com/articles/s4159…

Beautiful work by Lei Xing Takashi Namba and collaborators, uncovering synergy between a human-specific and an ape-specific metabolic regulators to boost progenitor abundance and neocortex size 🧠🧬

nature.com/articles/s4146…

Impressive work on Timothy syndrome by Sergiu P. Pasca Xiaoyu Chen Fikri Birey and collaborators, showing “how a multilevel, in vivo and in vitro stem cell model-based approach can identify strategies to reverse disease-relevant neural pathophysiology”
nature.com/articles/s4158…

Interesting work by Matteo Sebastianelli🇮🇹🇨🇴 Alex Kirschel seeking to reveal the genomic basis of vocal rhythm in birds (focusing on the speed of vocal rhythm):
nature.com/articles/s4146…
[things are likely much more complex, judging from the high polygenicity uncovered in nature.com/articles/s4156…]

“Cortical gene expression architecture links healthy neurodevelopment to the imaging, transcriptomics & genetics of autism and schizophrenia” Great work by Richard Dear Petra Vertes Ed Bullmore Jakob Seidlitz Richard Bethlehem Armin Raznahan & colleagues
nature.com/articles/s4159…

Good progress in understanding the path “from vibration in the ear to abstraction in the head” — Hierarchical dynamic coding coordinates speech comprehension in the brain, preprint by a great team: Laura Gwilliams Alec Marantz David Poeppel Jean-Rémi King

biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Really nice preprint by Alexander Okamoto Terence Capellini on ‘conserved yet tunable’ regulatory elements and their role in facilitating evolutionary adaptation in mammals:

biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Thanks for “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea”, Dan. What a great book!

Very nice exemplification of an approach developed by David Gokhman & collaborators, exploiting gene regulatory phenotyping to identify candidate Denisovan fossils:

biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Congrats to everyone selected. Special congrats to Marcella Birtele whose work on SYNGAP1 with Giorgia Quadrato I greatly enjoyed reading

Really nice study on facial evolution (mid-facial morphology), looking at shared/derived patterns on the hominid branch (incl. 2 special features in humans); by Alexandra Schuh Yann Heuzé Philipp Gunz Jean-Jacques Hublin Sarah Freidline
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…

A very interesting study on human evolution, basicranial morphogenesis in modern humans vs Neanderthals

Great study by Christina Como Siegenthaler_Lab on the impact of meningeal-derived retinoic acid on neurogenesis and brain development 👇

Comprehensive Nature Rev Neurosci review focusing on the ‘core’ language network in the brain, by Ev (like in 'evidence', not Eve) Fedorenko 🇺🇦 Anna Ivanova Tamar Regev 👇

A more nuanced understanding of aggression patterns in the genus Pan, by MaudMouginot Martin Surbeck and collaborators, concluding with a great discussion putting the results in context, in Current Biology

cell.com/current-biolog…