The Missing Pieces: How Deleted Information Shaped Humanity.

Researchers at Yale and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have found that the loss of about 10,000 bits of genetic information in the human genome, which are present in the genomes of other mammals, differentiate humans from chimpanzees, our closest primate relative. Some of these "deleted" pieces of genetic information are closely related to genes involved in neuronal and cognitive functions, including one associated with the formation of cells in the developing brain. These genetic deletions became conserved in all humans, suggesting that they conferred some biological advantage and helped explain our bigger brains and complex cognition.