That suggests humans' language abilities are the result of different wiring, not different cells. The changes in gene expression affect the connections between cells. 'But the gene expression has changed in those cells.'
'There really is a conserved set of cell types that we share with chimpanzees and gorillas,' Bakken says. But in those species, scientists found subtle differences in the brain areas that humans use to process language.
Those cells are present in chimps and gorillas, whose brains were also mapped as part of the atlas project.
'We share kind of a basic plan with mice,' he says, 'but we see specializations in primates that we don't necessarily see in a mouse.'
