Speaker
Description
The expansion of the cerebro-cerebellar system may be a primary driving factor behind primate cognitive evolution. Due to extensive connectivity to cognitive parts of the neocortex, the cerebellum is thought to support cognition analogous to its role in motor functions. Using an extensive MRI dataset (34 primates; 65 specimens) we found that cerebellar and neocortical measurements argue for Brownian Motion evolutionary dynamics. Furthermore, using phylogenetic generalized least squares analysis, we found that cerebellar and cerebral volumes co-evolve in primate evolution. We discuss these findings in reference to comparative neuroscience literature, providing a broader perspective of progress in this field and the usefulness of open science tools to aggregate anatomical data and segmentation.
