Abstract
The changes in brains as they evolved from early mammals to modern humans involved a great expansion of overall brain size and especially neocortex. Early mammals were small, and their small brains had a proportionately small cap of neocortex divided into approximately 20 functionally distinct areas. Numbers of areas and the size of the cortical sheet increased with the first primates and contained 40–50 cortical areas. Overall the six million years of the evolution of modern humans from early bipedal apes, brains evolved from a great ape size of 400 cc to roughly 1400 cc, with neocortex having an estimated 200 cortical areas occupying 80% of the brain. This cortical mass of 16 billion neurons, together with a high level of hemispheric specialization, appears to be critically involved in mediating the impressive cognitive abilities of modern humans.
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