Extension of cortical synaptic development distinguishes humans from chimpanzees and macaques

We search for developmental changes specific to humans by examining gene expression profiles in the human, chimpanzee and rhesus macaque prefrontal and cerebellar cortex, using microarray. In both brain regions, developmental patterns were more evolved in humans than in chimpanzees. To test the robust of the developmental patterns measured by microarray, we measured mRNA expression patterns in chimpanzee and macaque brains at different age groups, using high-throughput RNA-seq, Our results show that human-specific developmental patterns were reproduced in the RNA-seq data.