Europeans smarter due to neanderthal brain genes.

[Prisoner Of Ice]

http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2014/04...ans-lipid.html

Ann Gibbons explains in Did Europeans Get Fat From Neandertals?:

In the latest study, published online today in Nature Communications, Khaitovich and his international team analyzed the distribution of Neandertal gene variants in the genomes of 11 populations from Africa, Asia, and Europe.

They found that Europeans inherited three times as many genes involved in lipid catabolism, the breakdown of fats to release energy, from Neandertals as did Asians. (As expected, Africans did not carry any of these Neandertal variants.) The difference in the number of Neandertal genes involved with lipid processing was “huge,” Khaitovich says. The study also offers another example of the lingering genetic legacy left in some people today by the extinct Neandertals.

...

The team found that Europeans had differences in the concentration of various fatty acids in the brain that were not found in Asians or chimpanzees, which suggests they had evolved recently. The Europeans also showed differences in the function of enzymes that are known to be involved with the metabolism of fat in the brain.

Now the team is trying to figure out what the fatty acids do in the brain and how differences in their concentration might affect function. “We think it’s a very strong effect with very profound physiological changes,” Khaitovich says. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t see it in the brain tissue.”

Ever heard of myelin?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myelin

Well, it's one of the big keys to a brain that works well. A fatty sheath around neurons that has the effect of speeding up brain activity. It's part of the reason that fish oil is so good for your brain.

So looks like Europeans and to a lesser extent Asians have a lot of genes involved in fat processing in the brain which come from neanderthals, which has obvious implications.

[Kale]

Simple hybrid vigor my friend. Looks like we simply got the best of both.

[alb0zfinest]

Edit

[Prisoner Of Ice]

Just to make clear this is not about digestion. It's more about actually using fat as energy. Probably helps with cold adaptation but as with cold adaptation for higher ATP function, probably has more profound effects.

[Neanderthal]

Just to make clear this is not about digestion. It's more about actually using fat as energy. Probably helps with cold adaptation but as with cold adaptation for higher ATP function, probably has more profound effects.

The brain feeds through glucose and fat, the better it can process both the better the cognitive functions are. Relation is pretty clear.

[ButlerKing]

I admit Africans are dumber but why does it have to do with Neantherdal genes?


Neantherdal for the last hundred thousand years were living like savages

[SobieskisavedEurope]

The brain is mostly made up of fat & cholesterol.

It is very likely that humans would have never became so smart on a vegetarian diet as it is meat fats & cholesterol which support a larger brain.

Perhaps this is why vegetarians are notoriously mentally ill from Hitler to Charles Manson.

[Prisoner Of Ice]

I admit Africans are dumber but why does it have to do with Neantherdal genes?


Neantherdal for the last hundred thousand years were living like savages

Nope, pretty much every big first except wheel, probably came from neanderthals. There was no point in time they existed, where people elsewhere were nearly so advanced.

[ButlerKing]

The brain feeds through glucose and fat, the better it can process both the better the cognitive functions are. Relation is pretty clear.

I heard the reason why blacks are not intelligene because they lack Neanderthal genes. But I still don't get it? what makes them so smart when in the last hundred thousands years they lived like savages and were stupid enough to even get themselves extinct.

They only created very basic useless tools in all these years they existed

[SobieskisavedEurope]

I admit Africans are dumber but why does it have to do with Neantherdal genes?


Neantherdal for the last hundred thousand years were living like savages

It seems that Neanderthals invented the first art & first musical instruments (flutes)

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...-science-pike/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divje_Babe_Flute