Human Brains Are more Environment Adaptive as compared to Chimpazee Brains, New Study Suggests

Human brains are more malleable and adaptive to environmental changes than chimpanzee brains, a new study has found.

According to a study conducted by a team of scientists from Georgia State University, George Washington University and the University of Texas's Anderson Cancer Center, human brains exhibit more plasticity, meaning that human brain changes its size, shape and structure in reaction to external factors, reported TechTimes.

For the purpose of the study, the research team examined 218 human brains and 206 chimpanzee brains to compare two things: brain size and organization as related to genetic similarity.

The human brains that were mapped belonged to twins and siblings, while the studied chimpanzees shared a variety of family relations including mothers and offspring or half siblings. Brains were scanned using MRIs and deconstructed as three-dimensional computer models.   

The researchers found that human and chimpanzee brain sizes were both strongly influenced by genetics. However, there were significant differences between brain organization in humans and chimps. While, chimpanzees' brain organization is primarily inherited, it is much more closely related to environmental factors in humans, according to Phys.Org.

"We found that the anatomy of the chimpanzee brain is more strongly controlled by genes than that of human brains, suggesting the human brain is extensively shaped by its environment no matter its genetics," said lead study author Aida Gomez-Robles.

Aida is a postdoctoral scientist at the George Washington University Center for the Advanced Study of Human Paleobiology.

The research suggests that increased plasticity in human brains to successfully adapt to different environment conditions may open humans up to novel diseases and genetic maladies as well.

 "Though our findings suggest that the increased plasticity found in human brains has many benefits for adaptation, it is also possible that it makes our brain more vulnerable to many human-specific neurodegenerative and neurodevelopment disorders," said William Hopkins, professor in the Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State.

The study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).