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Is brain size linked to two common gene variants?
May 17, 2006UCLA imaging study fails to confirm suspected relationship
BACKGROUND: Human brain size is hereditary, but the genes that influence brain size in healthy people are unknown. The genes microcephalin (MCPH1) and abnormal spindle-like microcephaly-associated (ASPM) are potential candidates, because mutations in each have been linked to microcephaly, a disease causing smaller head size and mental retardation.
Specific normal variants of the MCPH1 and ASPM genes have attracted scientific attention, because they are now widespread in some human populations - despite evidence that these variants first arose only 5,000 to 37,000 years ago. This rapid increase suggests that the variants provided some evolutionary selective advantage. While scientists are uncertain why these variants are beneficial, they have interpreted the findings as evidence that the human brain continues to evolve.
FINDINGS: UCLA scientists aimed to evaluate whether these variants are associated with differences in brain size. The team used MRI scans to measure the brain size of 120 healthy people and then identified individuals with the MCPH1 and ASPM variants. The researchers found no evidence that either gene variant was related to increases or decreases in brain size.
IMPACT: The UCLA findings illustrate the need for scientific caution when interpreting evidence that nature has favored one gene variant over another during human evolution. Incorrect interpretations may lead to inaccurate assumptions about people who do or do not possess the favored variant.
University of California-Los Angeles
FINDINGS: UCLA scientists aimed to evaluate whether these variants are associated with differences in brain size. The team used MRI scans to measure the brain size of 120 healthy people and then identified individuals with the MCPH1 and ASPM variants. The researchers found no evidence that either gene variant was related to increases or decreases in brain size.
IMPACT: The UCLA findings illustrate the need for scientific caution when interpreting evidence that nature has favored one gene variant over another during human evolution. Incorrect interpretations may lead to inaccurate assumptions about people who do or do not possess the favored variant.
University of California-Los Angeles
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Scripps Research, UCSD, and University of Oslo team ties genetic variations to brain size
Using advanced brain imaging and genomics technologies, an international team of researchers co-led by Scripps Research Institute scientists has shown for the first time that natural variations in a specific gene influence brain structure.
Scientists track impact of DNA damage in the developing brain
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The use of tools by hominins - the primate group which includes humans (Homo) and chimpanzees and bonobos (Pan) - has been extensively researched by archaeologists and primatologists, both of who manifest the relevance of tool-use in understanding technology and the origins of human behaviour.
New Research Shows Dinosaurs May Have Been Smaller Than We Thought
For millions of years, dinosaurs have been considered the largest creatures ever to walk on land. While they still maintain this status, a new study suggests that some dinosaurs may actually have weighed as little as half as much as previously thought.
Competition May Be Reason For Bigger Brain
For the past 2 million years, the size of the human brain has tripled, growing much faster than other mammals. Examining the reasons for human brain expansion, University of Missouri researchers studied three common hypotheses for brain growth: climate change, ecological demands and social competition.
Cancer: The cost of being smarter than chimps?
Are the cognitively superior brains of humans, in part, responsible for our higher rates of cancer? That's a question that has nagged at John McDonald, chair of Georgia Tech's School of Biology and chief research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute, for a while.
Smart and social?
Packs of hunting dogs, troops of baboons, herds of antelope: when people observe social animals, they are often struck by how intelligent they seem, and recent studies suggest that sociality has played a key role in the evolution of larger brain size among several orders of mammals.
New analysis shows 'hobbits' couldn't hustle
A detailed analysis of the feet of Homo floresiensis-the miniature hominins who lived on a remote island in eastern Indonesia until 18,000 years ago-may help settle a question hotly debated among paleontologists: how similar was this population to modern humans?
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