orogenicman
Darwin was a pastafarian
- Jul 24, 2013
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So we may be smarter than the average animal, but as we age, we forget how smart we are. lol
Alzheimer s May Have Evolved Alongside Our Increasing Intelligence IFLScience
Alzheimer s May Have Evolved Alongside Our Increasing Intelligence IFLScience
Anatomically modern humans emerged around 200,000 years ago. Over the next hundred thousand years or so, natural selection drove changes in half a dozen genes for brain development—increasing the connectivity of neurons and making our species “smarter” than our early ancestors. But according to new findings posted online at bioRxiv, that intellectual capacity came with a cost: Alzheimer’s may have evolved alongside human intelligence, Nature reports. Those same genes are implicated in the origins of the age-related brain disease that destroys memory.