The New Comparative Biology of Human Nature
Organized by Jon H. Kaas, Todd M. Preuss, John M. Allman, and Susan M. Fitzpatrick
November 16-18, 2006
Irvine, CA
Meeting Overview:
For much of the 20th Century, research in experimental biology, and especially in psychology and neuroscience, concentrated on a relatively few model organism species, which tends to emphasize the similarities between species and minimize the importance of difference. One result is that we have relatively little detailed information about how the human species differs from (or, for that matter, resembles) other species.
Recently, as the number of model species used in molecular biology and genetics has proliferated, interest in comparative approaches to fundamental biological issues has grown. At the same time, researchers have begun to address the biological status of humans using novel genomic, neuroscientific, and behavioral methods. With respect to the human species, the most informative studies involve comparing humans to other primates, and especially to our closest relatives, the chimpanzees and other great apes. In addition to identifying similarities between humans and other animals, the investigations have begun to identify human-specific features of the brain and cognition, including a unique pattern of disease vulnerability.
This colloquium examines the tension between model-organism and comparative approaches in the history of biology, and then considers recent findings related to the biological and psychological specializations of humans.
Video Available
Session I: Model Organisms vs. Comparative Approaches to Biology: What do we Learn from Exemplars, Proxies, and Extremes?
Susan M. Fitzpatrick, James S. McDonnell Foundation, Moderator Opening Remarks
The Development of the Model-Animal Paradigm in Experimental Biology
Jane Maienschein and Jason Robert, Arizona State University
History matters: What are you really 'buying' when you buy rats for research?
Cheryl A. Logan, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Model-Organism and Comparative Approaches in the Neurosciences
Jon H. Kaas, Vanderbilt University
Session II: The Human Organism: Genotype and Phenotype
Rudy Raff, Indiana University, Moderator
Opening Remarks
The Evolutionary Relationships of Humans and Apes; What we know about Human Phenotypic Specializations
Bernard Wood, George Washington University
Genotypic and phenotypic changes on the chimpanzee lineage: what they can tell us about human evolution
Caro-Beth Stewart, University at Albany, State University of New York
Selection for Longevity in Human Evolution
Kristen Hawkes, University of Utah
Human Genomic Specializations
Evan Eichler, University of Washington
Banquet Lecture
Pasko Rakic, Yale University
Human Difference
Session III: Human Specializations: Health and Disease
Pascal Gagneux, University of California, San Diego, Moderator Opening Remarks
Biomedical and Genetic Differences Between Humans and Great Apes
Ajit Varki, University of California, San Diego
Alzheimer's Dementia: A Uniquely Human Disease
Patrick Hof, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Evolutionary Specializations of the Human Brain
Todd M. Preuss, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University
Early Cognitive Development in Humans and Nonhuman Primates
Alison Gopnik, University of California, Berkeley
Cortical Areas in Humans and Nonhuman Primates
David Van Essen, Washington University in St. Louis
Session IV: Human Specializations: Social Cognition and its Disorders
Patricia Kuhl, University of Washington
Language as a Human Specialization
The Evolution of Human Social Cognition: Comparative Cognitive Neuroscientific Approaches
Lisa Parr, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University
Neurobiology of Human Social Cognition
John M. Allman, California Institute of Technology
Genetic Regulation of Social Behavior in Rodents and Humans
Larry Young, Emory University
Summary and Wrap-Up
Daniel Povinelli, University of Louisiana, Lafayette Synthesis of Discussion
