Hominin endocast topography

This study examined the topography of prefrontal molds of human endocasts using three-dimensional laser scanning and geographic information systems (GIS) in order to carry out intra-species comparisons. Overall brain topography can indicate when major reorganizational shifts in brain structure happened in our evolutionalry history, and these shifts may indicate major shifts in cognition and behavior. Endocasts are one of the sole sources of information about extinct hominin brains ; they reproduce details of the brain's external morphology. Analysis of endocast morphology has never been done using GIS methodology. The use of GIS helps to overcome previous obstacles in regards to endocast analysis. Since this methodology is new, this research focuses on only one species, Homo sapiens and the area of focus is narrowed to the frontal lobe, specifically Broca's cap. This area is associated with speech in humans and is therefore of evolutionary significance. The variability in lateralization of this feature was quantified.