Articles for tag: brain evolution, Evolution of intelligence, Human brain development, Neurodevelopment, Placenta, Prenatal hormones

placenta

Did the Placenta Make Us Think? How Hormones in the Womb May Have Sculpted the Human Brain

Jan Otte

For thousands of years of human history, scholars have questioned what makes the human brain extraordinary, remarkable in its size, processing abilities, and overarching intelligence in a social setting. Now, a revolutionary new hypothesis from scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford posits an unlikely architect of our cognitive transformation: the placenta. It may have been ...