About this Research Topic

Background

In 2018, 30 top scientists worldwide gathered in the Brain Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to discuss the long-standing question: “What makes us human”?

What Makes Us Human: From Genes to Machine

This was a remarkable meeting indeed. Since then, this most-fascinating question has gained a remarkable burst of new answers. Using ancient (paleogenetics) and modern genomes, coupled with big data approaches and machine learning, new and ground-breaking information about our unique genes has been provided. Recently, new cell types (neurons and astrocytes), unique to the human brain, have been discovered using single-cell transcriptomics, and new understanding about local and global human brain structures, and their connection to the high-level cognitive capabilities of humans has been studied, using advanced graph theory and mathematical topology. Novel understanding has emerged regarding the evolution and complexity of synapses and plasticity processes, the fine structure of human local cortical circuits (“connectomics”), cross-regional connectivity, and their correspondence with advanced cognition and behaviour. Indeed, to provide a broad and deep perspective on “What makes us human”, there is a need to organize these different levels of information, from genes to cells, to networks to systems and to cognition and behaviour, under one umbrella, and to look at it all in the context of human evolution.

This mission is of great importance as, beyond our natural curiosity to understand ourselves as a species, there is an urgent clinical need to understand how experiences are stored and lost in the brain, why some drugs are specific to our brain (rather than, e.g., that of rodents’), and why some diseases are specific to humans (e.g., schizophrenia) and what is the genetic and system underpinnings of our brain-aging. Furthermore, recent years have seen a dramatic leap in the development of “brain inspired AI technologies”, aiming to achieve (and even surpass) human capabilities. Knowing our brains (from structure to function) will clearly provide new insights into these technologies, including the urgent need to develop energy-efficient computing. In turn, these fast-developing AI technologies will (and already do) provide key new insights into “What makes us human”.

The aim of this outstanding Research Topic is to provide the most up-to-date view on “What makes us human”, spanning from genes to cognition to human-inspired non-biological thinking machines. We are interested in both original research as well as reviews of the state-of-the-art of at all levels mentioned above, placing the novel findings and these different scales under one comprehensive collection.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Origins of Humans: Ancient Genomes and Human Evolution
- Evolutionary aspects of language, cognition and behavior
- Molecular signatures of the human brain
- Evolution of brain size and structure

• Our Unique Brain: Cells, Networks, whole regions
- Neurons and astrocytes
- Axonal projection and connectivity
- Human brain networks and brain regions
- Specific human diseases, aging, emotions

• Future of the Human Brain
- Biological (human organoids)
-Virtual (simulated) human brains
- Human-brain inspired AI technologies
- Humanoid robots
- Super and supra intelligence

Keywords: Ancient genomes, Human evolution, Evolution, Cells, Networks, Human brain

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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