Brain-expressed proteins that have undergone functional change during human evolution may contribute to human cognitive capacities， and may also leave us vulnerable to specifically human diseases， such as schizophrenia， autism or Alzheimer's disease. In order to search systematically for those proteins that have changed the most during human evolution and that might contribute to brain function and pathology， all proteins with orthologs in chimpanzee， orangutan and rhesus macaque and annotated as being expressed on the surface of cells in the human central nervous system were ordered by the number of human-specific amino acid differences that are fixed in modern populations.
Brain-expressed proteins that have undergone functional change during human evolution may contribute to human cognitive capacities， and may also leave us vulnerable to specifically human diseases， such as schizophrenia， autism or Alzheimer's disease. In order to search systematically for those proteins that have changed the most during human evolution and that might contribute to brain function and pathology， all proteins with orthologs in chimpanzee， orangutan and rhesus macaque and annotated as being expressed on the surface of cells in the human central nervous system were ordered by the number of human-specific amino acid differences that are fixed in modern populations.
