Evolution of cortical neurons supporting human cognition

Human cognitive abilities are generally thought to arise from cortical expansion over the course of human brain evolution. In addition to increased neuron numbers, this cortical expansion might be driven by adaptations in the properties of single neurons and their local circuits. We review recent findings on the distinct structural, functional, and transcriptomic features of human cortical neurons and their organization in cortical microstructure. We focus on the supragranular cortical layers, which showed the most prominent expansion during human brain evolution, and the properties of their principal cells: pyramidal neurons. We argue that the evolutionary adaptations in neuronal features that accompany the expansion of the human cortex partially underlie interindividual variability in human cognitive abilities.