Abstract
Cerebellar volume (CBV) estimation of fossil hominins can help in understanding the evolution of modern behavior, considering that recent neurological studies suggest significant contribution of the cerebellum to high cognitive abilities of modern humans. However, there has been no reliable methods to estimate the CBV from the endocranial cavity. In order to develop the method, the correlation between CBV and the volume and linear measurements of the posterior cranial fossa (PCF), which were taken from MRI data of thirty-two Japanese subjects, was examined. Estimation equations were then obtained from the bivariate relationships and the validity were evaluated based on prediction intervals. We found that, among the PCF metrics we examined, PCF volume was most highly correlated with CBV (r = 0.88), and the estimation equation provides CBV estimates with the error of about ±12 cc for specimens from the reference population sample. This result could offer a promising prospect for CBV estimation of fossil hominins including Neanderthal examples.
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This work was supported by a grant from MEXT, Japan (No.22101006).
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Kubo, D. et al. (2014). Cerebellar Size Estimation from Endocranial Measurements: An Evaluation Based on MRI Data. In: Akazawa, T., Ogihara, N., C Tanabe, H., Terashima, H. (eds) Dynamics of Learning in Neanderthals and Modern Humans Volume 2. Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54553-8_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54553-8_24
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