Why Neanderthals never had brain disorders

Washington, April 20:

In a significant discovery, scientists have found why modern humans develop brain disorders like autism or schizophrenia but our ancestor Neanderthals did not.

They have discovered the cellular equivalent of “on/off” switches that determine whether DNA is activated or not.

(courtesy: nationalgeographic.com)
(courtesy: nationalgeographic.com)

Hundreds of Neanderthals’ genes were turned “off” while the identical genes in today’s humans are turned “on”.

Alternatively, hundreds of other genes were turned “on” in Neanderthals but are “off” in people living today.

“The genes related to autism, as well as to schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, were more likely to be “off” in Neanderthals than in modern humans,” said lead author Liram Carmel from Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The discovery underlines the power of the “on/off” patterns.

“The ‘on/off’ switches could also explain the anatomical differences between archaic and present-day humans, including Neanderthals’ shorter legs and arms, bow-leggedness, large hands and fingers, and curved arm bones,” Carmel explained.

When dozens of brain-related genes became more active in today’s humans, that produced the harmful side effect of neurological illnesses, the study noted.

One person’s genome can vary markedly from another’s due to diet, environment and other factors.

“It is, therefore, impossible to know whether the ‘on/off’ patterns found in Neanderthal genes are typical of the species overall or peculiar to the individual studied, the study, published in the journal Science, concluded.

(IANS)

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4 Comments
  1. Babu G. Ranganathan says

    NEANDERTHALS WERE FULLY HUMAN

    APES ARE QUITE COMFORTABLE IN HOW THEY WALK, just as humans are quite comfortable in how they walk. Even a slight change in the position of a tendon, muscle, bone, or cartilage for either, would be excruciatingly painful and would not be an advantage for survival. There’s no hard evidence that humans evolved from ape-like creatures anymore than there’s hard evidence that apes evolved from four-legged-pawed dog-like creatures. All the fossils that have been used to support human evolution have been found to be either hoaxes, non-human, or human, but not non-human and human (i.e. Neanderthal Man was discovered later to be fully human). Textbooks and museums still continue to display examples and illustrations supporting human evolution which most evolutionists have rejected and no longer support. Many diagrams of ape-man creatures over the years were reconstructed according to evolutionary interpretations from disputable bones that have now been discredited but still being taught in school textbooks.

    ACQUIRED CHARACTERISTICS CAN’T BE PASSED ON: Many people have wrong ideas of how evolution is supposed to work. Physical traits and characteristics are determined and passed on by genes – not by what happens to our body parts. For example, if a woman were to lose her finger this wouldn’t affect how many fingers her baby will have. Changing the color and texture of your hair will not affect the color and texture of your children’s hair. So, even if an ape’s muscles and bones changed so that it could walk upright it still would not be able to pass on this trait to its offspring. Only changes or mutations that occur in the genetic code of reproductive cells (i.e. sperm and egg) can be passed on to offspring.

    GENETIC AND BIOLOGICAL SIMILARITIES: Genetic information, like other forms of information, cannot happen by chance, so it is more logical to believe that genetic and biological similarities between all forms of life are due to a common Designer who designed similar functions for similar purposes. It doesn’t mean all forms of life are biologically related!

    Also, so-called “Junk DNA” isn’t junk. Although these “non-coding” segments of DNA don’t code for proteins, they have recently been found to be vital in regulating gene expression (i.e. when, where, and how genes are expressed, so they’re not “junk”). Read my popular Internet article: HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM

    HUMAN-CHIMP DNA MYTH: The actual similarity is between 70-87% not 99.8% as commonly believed. The original research stating 99.8% similarity was based on ignoring contradicting evidence. Read the article, “Evaluating the Human-Chimp DNA Myth–New Research Data” at the Institute for Creation Research Site. Whatever similarities exist are better explained due to a common Designer Who designed similar functions for similar purposes, rather than chance common ancestry. Read my Internet article: WAR AMONG EVOLUTIONISTS!

    NATURAL LIMITS TO EVOLUTION: Only evolution within “kinds” is genetically possible (i.e. varieties of dogs, cats, etc.), but not evolution across “kinds” (i.e. from sea sponge to human). How did species survive if their vital tissues, organs, reproductive systems were still evolving? Survival of the fittest would actually have prevented evolution across kinds! Read my Internet article: WAR AMONG EVOLUTIONISTS! (2nd Edition).

    Natural selection doesn’t produce biological traits or variations. It can only “select” from biological variations that are possible and which have survival value. The real issue is what biological variations are possible, not natural selection. Only limited evolution, variations of already existing genes and traits are possible. Nature is mindless and has no ability to design and program entirely new genes for entirely new traits.

    Modern evolutionists believe and hope that over, supposedly, millions of years random genetic mutations in the genes of reproductive cells caused by environmental radiation will generate entirely new genes. This is total blind and irrational faith on the part of evolutionists. It’s much like believing that randomly changing the sequence of letters in a romance novel, over millions of years, will turn it into a book on astronomy! That’s the kind of blind faith macro-evolutionists have.

    When evolutionary scientists teach that random genetic mutations in species over, supposedly, millions of years caused by random environmental agents such as radiation, produced entirely new genes (i.e. genetic code or genetic information) leading to entirely new forms of life, they are not teaching science but simply a faith, a belief!

    Visit my newest Internet site: THE SCIENCE SUPPORTING CREATION

    I discuss: Punctuated Equilibria, “Junk DNA,” genetics, mutations,
    natural selection, fossils, genetic and biological similarities between species.

    Sincerely,
    Babu G. Ranganathan*
    (B.A. theology/biology)

    Author of popular Internet article, TRADITIONAL DOCTRINE OF HELL EVOLVED
    FROM GREEK ROOTS

    *I have had the privilege of being recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who In The East” for my writings on religion and science. I have given successful lectures (with question and answer period afterward) before evolutionist science faculty and students at various colleges/universities.

  2. Riversong says

    Yet another unintended consequence of over-reliance on the brain.

  3. peabody3000 says

    maybe these defects gave us modern humans an advantage. our rulers after all are predominantly psychotic and modern civilisation seems to profit from that in a most perverse sense

  4. san says

    Genetic coded the explanation.
    no doubt friends.

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