Collaborative Research: Evolutionary Origins of the Brain Energetics and Adaptive Plasticity of Humans

合作研究：大脑能量的进化起源和人类的适应性可塑性

• 批准号: 0827531
• 负责人: Chet Sherwood
• 金额: $ 70.98万
• 依托单位: George Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-09-15 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0827531&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Evolutionary; Origins; Brain

The human brain is distinguished by costly energetic demands and enhanced plasticity. This combination of factors underlies some of the most unique cognitive capacities of our species. The brain's capacity for learning is greatest during childhood and involves the formation and refinement of new neuronal connections. This process is driven by high rates of energy consumption. This research project will identify the genetic changes during evolution that brought about the human brain and explore the causal link between the development of brain plasticity and metabolism. A major aim of this project involves charting the changes in the brain's energy utilization during the different maturational stages of humans. To accomplish this goal, the interdisciplinary team is using positron emission tomography scans of brain glucose consumption over the course of development from birth to adult stages. These results will be integrated with the patterns presented by RNA and protein data on the thousands of genes that are expressed at changing levels in different brain regions across the same developmental stages. Comparative data on the developmental expression of proteins and neuron morphology in great apes and macaque monkeys are also being obtained to determine whether the progression of molecular and cellular changes in human brain development are distinctively different from our close relatives. The investigators expect to find coordinated expression patterns in brain energetic and brain plasticity genes showing evidence that adaptive evolution occurred in their regulatory machinery during the origin of humans. The results should provide important clues about the organization and function of the molecular machinery that underpins the type of human brain plasticity that gives our species its exceptional capacity to incorporate experience and learning into the production of culture. By focusing attention on brain energetic and brain plasticity genes that show adaptive evolution during recent human ancestry but are currently fixed across human populations, this project's focus on shared genes that define human cognitive abilities reinforces the conclusion of a common humanity. Thus the results of this project should be of interest to the general public and to scientists across a wide variety of disciplines, including anthropology, neuroscience, molecular evolution, bioenergetics, endocrinology and pediatrics. Experimental determination of total brain energetics during growth will enhance our ability to understand the age-specific tradeoffs that the acquisition of larger brains would have required during human evolutionary history, while also providing a new context in which to understand metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Furthermore, this project will advance research and education by providing training opportunities for individuals at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels.

人的大脑以昂贵的能量需求和增强的可塑性来区分。这种因素的结合是我们物种中一些最独特的认知能力。大脑的学习能力在童年时期最大，涉及新的神经元联系的形成和完善。此过程是由高能耗率驱动的。该研究项目将确定进化过程中引起人脑的遗传变化，并探索大脑可塑性和代谢的发展之间的因果关系。该项目的主要目的是绘制人类不同成熟阶段中大脑能量利用的变化。为了实现这一目标，跨学科团队正在使用从出生到成人阶段的发育过程中对脑葡萄糖消耗的正电子发射断层扫描。 这些结果将与RNA和蛋白质数据呈现的模式集成到有关数千个基因的蛋白质数据，这些基因在相同发育阶段的不同大脑区域的变化水平上表达。 还获得了有关大猿和猕猴中蛋白质和神经元形态发育表达的比较数据，以确定人脑发育中分子和细胞变化的进展是否与我们的亲密亲戚有明显不同。 研究人员期望在人类起源期间在其调节机制中发现适应性进化的证据表明，在大脑和脑可塑性基因中发现了协调的表达模式。 结果应提供有关分子机制的组织和功能的重要线索，该分子机械的基础是人类脑可塑性的类型，这使我们的物种具有非凡的能力，可以将经验和学习纳入文化的生产中。 通过将注意力集中在最近人类血统中显示出适应性进化但目前固定在人类种群中的脑能量和脑可塑性基因上，该项目的重点是定义人类认知能力的共享基因，从而加强了共同人类的结论。 因此，该项目的结果应该引起公众和各种学科的科学家的关注，包括人类学，神经科学，分子进化，生物能学，内分泌学和儿科。 实验性确定生长过程中总脑能量学的确定将增强我们理解特定年龄的权衡的能力，即在人类进化史上获得更大的大脑需要获得的较大大脑需要，同时还提供了一种新的环境，以了解糖尿病等代谢性疾病。 此外，该项目将通过为本科，研究生和博士后水平的个人提供培训机会来提高研究和教育。