Gene expression changes during primate postnatal brain development

In development, timing is of the utmost importance, and the timing of various developmental processes are often changed during evolution. During human evolution sexual maturation has been delayed relative to other primates and this may have played a critical role for both the increase of human brain size and the rise of human-specific cognitive traits .

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Somel M, Franz H, Yan Z, Lorenc A, Guo S, Giger T, Kelso J, Nickel B, Dannemann M, Bahn S, Webster MJ, Weickert CS, Lachmann M, Pääbo S, Khaitovich P