Study: advantage over Neanderthals became known

By studying fossilized skulls, scientists know that Neanderthal brain size was the same, if not slightly larger, than that of modern humans. However, researchers knew little about the development of the Neanderthal brain because the soft tissues are poorly preserved in the fossil record.

Now, an intriguing study published in September has revealed a potential difference that may have given modern humans, or Homo sapiens, a cognitive advantage over Neanderthals, the Stone Age hominids that lived in Europe and parts of Asia before going extinct about 40,000 years ago. .

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, said they have identified a genetic mutation that caused faster creation of neurons in the Homo sapiens brain. The Neanderthal variant of the gene in question, known as TKTL1, differs from the modern human variant in one amino acid.

“We have identified the gene that makes us human,” said study author Wieland Huttner, professor and emeritus director of the institute.

When two versions of the gene were introduced into mouse embryos, the research team found that the modern human variant of the gene resulted in an increase in a certain type of… cells that make neurons in the neocortex region of the brain. The scientists also tested the two variants of the gene in ferret embryos and lab-grown brain tissue made from human stem cells, with similar results.

The team concluded that this ability to produce more neurons likely gave Homo sapiens a cognitive advantage unrelated to overall brain size, suggesting that modern humans have “more neocortex to work with than ancient Neanderthals,” according to a study published in journal Science.