One of the defining features of human evolution is the steady expansion of our brains. New findings suggest this growth may be partly linked to higher levels of estrogen before birth. Surprisingly, a ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Study reveals rapid evolution of common brain neurons may explain autism’s high prevalence in humans (CREDIT: Shutterstock) What ...

Human evolution has long been tied to growing brain size, and new research suggests prenatal hormones may have played a surprising role. By studying the relative lengths of index and ring fingers — a ...

The evolution of the human species is marked by an increase in brain size. Now new research suggests that could be partly ...

The placenta and the hormones it produces may have played a crucial role in the evolution of the human brain, while also leading to the behavioral traits that have made human societies able to thrive ...

A new study from Northwestern University is reshaping how scientists think about brain evolution. The research suggests that the gut microbiome does more than aid digestion. It may also influence how ...

Human newborns arrive remarkably underdeveloped. The reason lies in a deep evolutionary trade-off between big brains, bipedalism and the limits of motherhood.

Researchers have used a new human reference genome, which includes many duplicated and repeat sequences left out of the original human genome draft, to identify genes that make the human brain ...

The microorganisms in our gastrointestinal tract–the gut microbiome can exert a profound influence on the human body, and scientists are learning more about exactly how certain microbes can impact us.

Evidence for the controlled use of fire is rather sketchy prior to one million years ago. Well before this time, human ancestors such as Homo erectus, whose brain size fits between ourselves and the ...

What makes the human brain different from that of other primates has long been a question. A new study suggests that the answer may be in a surprising twist of evolutionary fate: one of the brain’s ...