The Evolutionary Roots of Human Brain Diseases

Richly illustrated with figures and examples and supplemented with a glossary of terms, The Evolutionary Roots of Human Brain Diseases assembles recent findings in clinical neuroscience, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and cellular biology to elucidate the origins of human brain diseases and how evolution has given rise to exclusive impacts on brain health only in humans. The book is succinct, up-to-date, and written by researchers across numerous disciplines, making it a compulsory read for clinical neurologists, psychologists, and all medical researchers interested in the brain.

The book's 22 chapters cover basic science concepts behind cerebral cellular specificities or human-specific network developments, detailed discussions of neurological or psychiatric diseases and their clinical expression with an evolutionary focus, the newest imaging techniques to study the brain, future medication developments, as well as cultural and societal repercussions. Evolutionary concepts ranging from genetic pleiotropic antagonism to disease remnants of ancient behaviours crucial for survival are also presented. Insightful and innovative in its approach, this book offers a fascinating interdisciplinary dialogue on the potential repercussions of ongoing human brain evolution.

Nico J. Diederich, MD, is Adjunct Professor of Neurology at the University of Cologne, Germany, and a Consultant in Neurology at the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg. His research and clinical work focus on movement disorders particularly Parkinson's disease (PD), from visual deficits to sleep syndromes or dysautonomia.

Martin Brüne, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry and Head of the Division of Social Neuropsychiatry and Evolutionary Medicine at the LWL University-Hospital, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. He was previously a Visiting Research Scientist at the Centre for the Mind, a joint venture of the Australian National University and University of Sydney.

Katrin Amunts, PhD, is Professor Director of the C. and O. Vogt Institute for Brain Research, HHU Duesseldorf, and of the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Research Center Juelich. Since 2023, she holds the position of Joint CEO of the non-profit EBRAINS AISBL.

Christopher G. Goetz, MD, is Professor of Neurological Sciences and Pharmacology at Rush Medical College, USA and oversees Research Development and Strategic Planning for the Parkinson and Movement Disorder Program. His research specialties are in pharmacology, neurochemistry, clinimetrics, and statistical modelling. He is past President of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society and past Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Movement Disorders.

Foreword by Sten Grillner
Introduction by the Editors, Nico J. Diederich, Martin Brüne, Katrin Amunts, Christopher G. Goetz

Part I: Human Brain Evolution: From Anatomy to Function

Chapter 1: Human Telencephalization
Katrin Amunts and Felix Ströckens

Chapter 2: Evolutionary Aspects of Glial Expansion
Pierre Magistretti, Patrick Hof , Corrado Cali, and Nicole Ackermans

Chapter 3: The Contribution of Mitochondrial Evolution and Dysfunction to Neurodegeneration
Anne Grünewald, Sandro Pereira, and Kobi Wasner

Chapter 4: Intrinsic Templates for Neurodegenerations Featuring Disease-specific Axonal or Dendritic Vulnerability
Toshiki Uchihara

Chapter 5: Differences in Brain Gene Expression Between Humans and Primates
Geneviève Konopka and Emre Caglayan

Chapter 6: Adapative Archaic Introgression
Olga Dolgova and Oscar Lao

Chapter 7: Goal-directed and Habitual Behaviors: Anatomical and Functional Circuits in Health and Neurological Disease
Ledia F. Hernandez and Ignacio Obeso

Part II: How Human Brain Diseases Are Impacted By Human Evolution

Chapter 8: Alzheimer's Disease, the Parietal Lobes, and the Evolution of the Human Genus
Emiliano Bruner and Heidi I.L. Jacobs

Chapter 9: Parkinson's Disease - Overstrain Focused of Basal Ganglia and Brainstem Nuclei
Nico J. Diederich and Christopher G. Goetz

Chapter 10: Brain Diseases Associated with Unstable Repeats
Peng Jin, Katharine Shelly, and Emily G. Allen

Chapter 11: The Properties of Cortico-Motoneuronal Connections and Their Evolutionary Significance for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Roger Lemon

Chapter 12: REM Sleep Behavior Disorder - Nocturnal Replay of a "Fight and Flee"
Nico Diederich and Isabelle Arnulf

Chapter 13: Mood Disorders: An Evolutionary Psycho-Neuro-Immunological Approach
Markus J Rantala Javier I. Borráz-León

Chapter 14: Schizophrenia - Embracing the Spectrum
John S. Allen

Chapter 15: Williams Syndrome and Autism - Dysfunction of Frontal Networks
Katerina Semendeferi and Isabel August

Chapter 16: ADHD - An Evolutionary View
Annie Swanepoel

Chapter 17: Addiction - Diverted Reward and Motivation Principles
Roger Sullivan and Edward Hagen

Part 3: Consequences and perspectives on research and clinical sciences

Chapter 18: Conditions of Comparative Brain Connectomics
Kathleen Rockland, Daniel Zachlod, and Katrin Amunts

Chapter 19: Are Evolutionary Concepts Helfpul in Designing Preventive Strategies for Brain Diseases?
Gilberto Levy and Bruce Levin

Chapter 20: Evolutionary Aspects of Neuro-Psychopharmocology
Martin Brüne, Riadh Abed, and Paul St. John-Smith

Chapter 21: Ongoing Human Evolution?
Frank Rühli, Maciej Henneberg, and Nicole Bender

Chapter 22: Human Cultural Evolution Outpaces Biological Evolution: A Brain Connectomic Approach
Jean-Pierre Changeux

Chapter 23: Concluding Remarks and Future Directions
Martin Brüne, Katrin Amunts, Nico J. Diederich, and Christopher G. Goetz