The modern human brain and braincase have a characteristic globular shape including parietal and cerebellar bulging. In contrast, Neanderthals, although having similar endocranial volume, displayed more elongated endocrania with flatter parietal and cerebellar regions. Based on endocranial imprints, we compare the parietal lobe morphology of modern humans and Neanderthals, as this brain region is central to several cognitive functions including tool use and visual imaging. In paleoneurology, shape analyses of endocasts are based either on anatomical landmarks that represent endocranial surface features homologous to cortical convolutions (impressions of brain gyri and sulci) or on dense meshes of semilandmarks that capture overall endocranial shape. Previous analyses using the former suggested that modern humans have relatively longer and taller parietal lobes than extinct human species, while the latter emphasized parietal bulging without a significant size difference of parietal regions. In the present study, we combine both anatomical landmarks and surface semilandmarks to investigate the morphological differences of the parietal lobes between modern humans and Neanderthals. Despite limitations by landmark uncertainty, our analyses were able to detect and confirm average different parietal shapes, with modern humans displaying taller and anteroposteriorly extended parietal lobes. We also show mean size differences, with modern humans displaying slightly larger surface areas on the dorsal posterior parietal region, and on a lateral region comprising the supramarginal gyrus, angular gyrus, and intraparietal sulcus. While we observed average differences in the parietal form between the two species, their ranges of distribution overlap, indicating the differences could be a matter of degree. Thus, further analyses on intraspecific variation in parietal lobe morphology within modern human brains should help understand the differences between globular and elongated endocrania. This is crucial because changes to the parietal cortex might affect associative and integrative functions between somatic and visual primary inputs.

现代人的大脑和脑壳具有独特的球形形状，包括顶突和小脑膨出。相比之下，尼安德特人虽然具有相似的颅内体积，但显示出更多的伸长的颅骨内膜和较平坦的顶叶和小脑区域。基于颅内印记，我们比较了现代人和尼安德特人的顶叶形态，因为该大脑区域对于包括工具使用和视觉成像在内的多种认知功能至关重要。在古生物学中，内分泌物的形状分析是基于代表颅内表面特征的解剖学标志（与皮质回旋相似）（脑回和苏尔奇的印象），或基于捕获整个颅内形状的密集的半标志性网格。先前使用前者的分析表明，现代人类的顶叶比绝种物种更长，更高，而后者则强调顶壁膨大而顶壁区域的大小没有明显差异。在本研究中，我们结合了解剖学界标和表面半界标来研究现代人和尼安德特人之间顶叶的形态学差异。尽管受到地标不确定性的限制，但我们的分析仍能够检测并确认平均不同的顶叶形状，现代人显示出更高和前后延伸的顶叶。我们还显示出平均大小差异，现代人在顶后背区域和包括上弓回，角回，和顶内沟。尽管我们观察到两种物种的顶叶形式存在平均差异，但它们的分布范围却重叠，这表明差异可能只是程度的问题。因此，对现代人脑顶叶形态内种内变异的进一步分析应有助于了解球状和拉长型内cra骨之间的差异。这是至关重要的，因为顶皮质的变化可能会影响躯体和视觉主要输入之间的联想和整合功能。对现代人大脑顶叶形态内种内变异的进一步分析应有助于了解球状和拉长型内cra骨之间的差异。这是至关重要的，因为顶皮质的变化可能会影响躯体和视觉主要输入之间的联想和整合功能。进一步分析现代人脑顶叶形态的种内变异，应该有助于了解球状和长形内cra的差异。这是至关重要的，因为顶皮质的变化可能会影响躯体和视觉主要输入之间的联想和整合功能。