The allometric scaling of sensorimotor control in human evolution

This project is funded by the Leakey Foundation to support inquiry into how differences in body size and the scaling relationships between anatomical structures and neural systems have influenced the development and functioning of sensorimotor control across hominin evolution. By framing sensorimotor control in an allometric context, the research seeks to connect morphological scaling patterns with behavioral and functional outcomes observable in the fossil record and comparative anatomy. 

Allometry—how anatomical and physiological traits change with body size—is a fundamental concept for interpreting evolutionary change. Applying allometric thinking to sensorimotor systems provides a structured way to examine whether changes in brain size, limb proportions, musculature, or sensory organ dimensions could systematically affect motor coordination, sensory integration, and the neural control strategies available to ancestral hominins. This work aims to synthesize these perspectives, positioning sensorimotor control not as an isolated trait but as one shaped in predictable ways by organismal scale and the interplay of form and function. 

The project’s focus highlights the importance of integrating anatomical, neurobiological, and evolutionary frameworks to better understand how shifts in body and brain size might have constrained or enabled particular patterns of movement, manipulation, and perception that were consequential for survival, tool use, and ecological adaptation. By investigating scaling relationships, this research has the potential to clarify which sensorimotor features are likely to have been present given particular morphological configurations evident in fossil specimens, and which features would require particular evolutionary or developmental modifications. 

Funded through a Leakey Foundation grant, this study contributes to a broader effort to ground interpretations of hominin behavior and capabilities in quantitative, principled approaches to form–function relationships. The project underscores a comparative evolutionary perspective, using allometric principles as a bridge between fossil morphology and hypotheses about neural and behavioral capacities.