Question: what traits did we get from the monkeys brain?

Iroise Dumontheil answered on 14 Nov 2016:

Lots! We share actually 99% of our DNA with chimpanzees, so there are lots of traits we share with great apes, and a bit less with monkeys because they are a little bit less close to us. We share these traits though, rather than getting them from monkeys, as the similarities come from the fact that we shared some ancestors some million years ago.

Some researchers investigating how the brain works use macaque monkeys as a model for humans, again highlighting the similarities. But our brains are not identical, and it may be easier to talk about the traits we do not share than those we share. Human brains are more folded, and the prefrontal cortex (behind the forehead) is relatively larger in humans than in apes. Humans are more able to think in an abstract way, to use language and grammar, to plan ahead, to think about their own (metacognition) or other people’s thoughts (mentalising, mindreading). Some chimps use tools but we use a lot more tools all the time than them.