Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) in Leipzig have now discovered that neural stem cells—the cells from which neurons in the developing neocortex derive—spend more time preparing their chromosomes for division in modern humans than in Neanderthals.
“Our study implies that some aspects of modern human brain evolution and function may be independent of brain size since Neanderthals and modern humans have similar-sized brains. The findings also suggest that brain function in Neanderthals may have been more affected by chromosome errors than that of modern humans,” says Wieland Huttner, who co-supervised the study. Svante Pääbo, who also co-supervised the study, adds that “future studies are needed to investigate whether the decreased error rate affects modern human traits related to brain function.”
This kind of stuff just blows my mind. Pun intended.
Who would have guessed it was possible to get this information? Truth is stranger than fiction.
Interesting analysis.
Wonder if similar Genome research was done on moderns with severe autism or those which were seriously inbred..
No clue but I doubt it. The method is new and hasn’t had time to spread to other areas of research.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn7702
You might find something in the references.