Evolution of the brain

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The evolution of the brain refers to the progressive development and complexity of neural structures over millions of years, resulting in the diverse range of brain sizes and functions observed across different species today, particularly in vertebrates.

The evolution of the brain has exhibited diverging adaptations within taxonomic classes, such as Mammalia, and even more diverse adaptations across other taxonomic classes. Brain-to-body size scales allometrically.^[1] This means that as body size changes, so do other physiological, anatomical, and biochemical connections between the brain and body.^[2] Small-bodied mammals tend to have relatively large brains compared to their bodies, while larger mammals (such as whales) have smaller brain-to-body ratios. When brain weight is plotted against body weight for primates, the regression line of the sample points can indicate the brain power of a species. For example, lemurs fall below this line, suggesting that for a primate of their size, a larger brain would be expected. In contrast, humans lie well above this line, indicating they are more encephalized than lemurs and, in fact, more encephalized than any other primate.^[3] This suggests that human brains have undergone a larger evolutionary increase in complexity relative to size. Some of these changes have been linked to multiple genetic factors, including proteins and other organelles.