Download Neurobiology of Consciousness Homework 11 Problem 1. What are

Neurobiology of Consciousness
Homework 11
Problem 1. What are the three genes associated with the increase in brain volume in hominins?
Problem 2. How does human maturation rate compares to chimpanzees’?
age when start walking:
age when molar teeth erupt:
age when start sexual activity:
cerebellum maturation:
PFC maturation:
Problem 3. Compare the risk-taking behavior in human and chimpanzee children? Include examples.
Why do adults normally NOT involve themselves in this sort of behavior; what part of the brain do we need to
thank for that?
Problem 4. How similar is the human and chimpanzee DNA sequence? compare that number to the similarity
of the DNA sequence between common mouse Mus musculus and rat Rattus norvegicus?
Problem 5. What role does FOXP2 protein play?
How many amino acids in FOXP2 changed in 70 million years from the common ancestor of chimpanzee and
the mouse to chimpanzee?
How many amino acids in FOXP2 changed in 6 million years from the common ancestor of chimpanzee and
human to modern humans?
How many amino acids in FOXP2 are different between modern humans and Neanderthals?
What does this tell us about the timing of acquisition of articulate speech by hominins?
Neurobiology of Consciousness
Homework 11
Problem 6. Do chimpanzees have a cortical area homologous to the human’s Broca’s area?
Do chimpanzees have a cortical area homologous to the human’s Wernicke’s area?
What are the similarities?
What are the differences?
Problem 7. According to Liu X and colleagues report (2012), the delay in prefrontal cortex development
occurred within the last 300,000 years. Is it after or before modern humans split from the Neanderthal lineage?
Problem 8. What is the difference in the vocal cords (larynx) position between modern humans and
chimpanzees?
What are the benefits of this new vocal cords position for humans?
What are the downsides of this new vocal cords position for humans?
What do we know about the timeline of the change in vocal cords position?
What does this tell us about the timing of acquisition of articulate speech by hominins?
Problem 9. What is the importance of the hyoid bone for the speech apparatus?
What does the hyoid bone tell us about the timing of acquisition of articulate speech by hominins?
Problem 10 (Optional). In class, we have discussed the Romulus and Remus hypothesis. The Romulus and
Remus were the twin brothers who received the mutation that significantly slowed their PFC development,
created spatial prepositions in their conversations and thus converted the finite communication system of their
parents to infinite syntactic language. As a result Romulus and Remus acquired mental synthesis and became
the smartest people on the planet.
This dramatic moment of humans acquiring mental synthesis and infinite syntactic language is asking for a
legend. If you care please write a legend. The best legend will be rewarded with a neuroscience book and I will
include your legend (with full credit to you) in my next book.
When writing a legend, note that Romulus and Remus must have been children of a tribal chief, otherwise the
unusually slowly developing children would probably not survive their childhood: after all they were
developing extremely slowly compared to their peers and, as a result, were prone to unusual risk taking
behavior... so they could have drowned or wondered somewhere....