Being Darwinians, we know perfectly that we – the humans – belong to the animal kingdom. This is underscored, in particular, by the conservation, during animal evolution, of a large number of genetic circuits and molecular/cellular mechanisms that underpin brain development. But one also needs to identify what types of events have allowed the rapid and recent evolutionary innovations that have put us apart from the rest of the mammals, primates included. This lecture will present and discuss some mechanisms that have contributed to the emergence of anatomical and physiological traits specific of the human brain and at the origin of its unprecedented cognitive functions.