Todd M. Preuss is an American biological anthropologist and neuroscientist known for his research on primate brain evolution and the identification of human-specific neurobiological specializations. He is currently a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine and was previously an Associate Research Professor at the Emory National Primate Research Center (formerly the Yerkes National Primate Research Center).
Early Life and Education
Preuss attended Haverford College, where he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and High Honors in 1980. He continued his studies at Yale University, earning a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in Biological Anthropology in 1982 and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in the same field in 1990. His doctoral research was supervised by the prominent neuroscientist Patricia S. Goldman-Rakic and Dame Alison F. Richard.
Academic Career
Preuss held several academic positions before joining Emory University:
- Vanderbilt University: Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology (1995).
- University of Louisiana at Lafayette: Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science and co-founder of the Institute of Cognitive Science (1996–2002).
- Emory University: Joined the faculty in 2002 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2008 and became a Professor with Tenure in 2019.
Throughout his tenure at Emory, he served as a Faculty Affiliate for the Department of Anthropology and the undergraduate program in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology (NBB).
Research Contributions
Preuss’s work focuses on understanding how the human brain differs from those of other primates and how primate brains differ from other mammals. His research integrates comparative neuroanatomy, genomics, and neuroimaging (specifically MRI and DTI).
Human Brain Specializations
Preuss has been a leader in identifying unique features of the human brain, particularly in the cerebral cortex. His research has shown that the classical association regions—involved in language, social cognition, and semantic representation—expanded significantly in the human lineage. He has also investigated the precuneus, a hub for visuospatial integration, which he identified as a neurological specialization of Homo sapiens.
Evolution of Connectivity
One of his most-cited contributions involves the arcuate fasciculus, a white-matter pathway critical for language. Using comparative diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI), Preuss and his colleagues demonstrated that the human arcuate fasciculus is more extensively developed than that of chimpanzees or macaques.
Genomics and Epigenetics
Preuss has utilized genomics to bridge the gap between genetic changes and physical brain phenotypes. This includes work on:
- FOXP2: Investigating the human-specific transcriptional regulation of genes involved in CNS development.
- DNA Methylation: Identifying epigenetic regulatory loci that evolved in the human brain.
- Gene Expression: Exploring how elevated gene expression levels distinguish human brains from those of non-human primates.
Selected Publications
- Preuss, T. M. (1995). “Do rats have prefrontal cortex? The Rose-Woolsey-Akert program reconsidered.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
- Preuss, T. M., et al. (2004). “Human brain evolution: insights from microarrays.” Nature Reviews Genetics.
- Rilling, J. K., Glasser, M. F., Preuss, T. M., et al. (2008). “The evolution of the arcuate fasciculus revealed with comparative DTI.” Nature Neuroscience.
- Preuss, T. M. (2012). “Human brain evolution: from gene discovery to phenotype discovery.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
This video features Dr. Preuss discussing the unique neurobiological features that distinguish humans from other great apes and the importance of comparative research.