From ScienceDaily:
Schizophrenia poses an evolutionary enigma. The disorder has existed throughout recorded human history and persists despite its severe effects on thought and behavior, and its reduced rates of producing offspring. A new study may help explain why-comparing genetic information of Neanderthals to modern humans, the researchers found evidence for an association between genetic risk for schizophrenia and markers of human evolution.…
“Our findings suggest that schizophrenia vulnerability rose after the divergence of modern humans from Neanderthals,” said Andreassen, “and thus support the hypothesis that schizophrenia is a by-product of the complex evolution of the human brain.” More. Paper. (public access) – Saurabh Srinivasan, Francesco Bettella, Morten Mattingsdal, Yunpeng Wang, Aree Witoelar, Andrew J. Schork, Wesley K. Thompson, Verena Zuber, Bendik S. Winsvold, John-Anker Zwart, David A. Collier, Rahul S. Desikan, Ingrid Melle, Thomas Werge, Anders M. Dale, Srdjan Djurovic, Ole A. Andreassen. Genetic Markers of Human Evolution Are Enriched in Schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 2016; 80 (4): 284 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.10.009
Even for the August news dead zone this is reaching. W don’t know that Neanderthals didn’t have schizophrenia or even that racoons don’t have it. (But who would know or care?)
See also: Neanderthal vs. modern human fashions?
and
Neanderthal Man: The long-lost relative turns up again, this time with documents
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