Abstract

Functional craniology deals with the study of the relationships among the anatomical elements of the skull, involving issues in morphological integration and modularity, morphogenesis, and phylogeny. Digital anatomy and computed morphometrics have represented a major advance in this field. Human paleoneurology concerns the relationships between brain and braincase in hominids, and it is aimed at evaluating how these relationships have changed in the last five millions years. The analysis of the structural and functional relationships between cranial and endocranial components are necessary to support evolutionary interpretations of brain form changes associated with the evolution of the human genus. Because of the constraints between soft and hard tissue, some of these changes can be relevant to understand the evolutionary background of some pathological conditions associated with spatial organization, vascular networks, or metabolic processes.