Lab-grown Neanderthal mini-brains might shed more light on human evolution
What's the story
Up until now, researchers' attempts to understand the success of Homo sapiens over their less fortunate evolutionary uncles, the Neanderthals, literally involved studying a void i.e. the empty space in Neanderthal skulls. Now, scientists have managed to grow mini Neanderthal brains from stem cells, a development which might shed more light on why their population got extinct while ours thrived. Here's more on it.
Neanderthals
Communication abilities set Homo sapiens apart from Neanderthals
For those unaware, Neanderthals are the closest extinct hominin relatives of modern humans, Homo sapiens. Notably, the Neanderthals were faster than us, stronger than us, had brains of a similar size to us, and used a sophisticated symbolic language not evident in other human species. So why did they die out? The prevalent theory is that they couldn't communicate as well as we do.
Neanderoids
The 'Neanderoids' differed considerably than human mini-brains
The theory that we survived owing to superior communication skills has now received new support from the lab-grown Neanderthal mini-brains, dubbed 'Neanderoids'. When the Neanderoids (pea-sized blobs of tissue that mimic a brain cortex) self-assembled in the lab, scientists noted that they resembled a popcorn shape, considerably different from the spherical mini-brains grown from human DNA.
Neural structures
Neanderthal neuron structures resemble that of people with autism
The scientists noted that the way neurons developed and connected in the Neanderoid resembled the way some neurons developed in people (Homo sapiens) with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Instead of drawing parallels between Neanderthals and people with autism, the scientists said that the similarities in brain structures suggested that Neanderthals' ability to communicate with others differed from un-autistic humans with different neural structures.
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Why the findings are relevant
"In modern humans, these types of changes are linked to defects in brain development that are needed for socialization. If we believe that's one of our advantages over Neanderthals, it's relevant," said geneticist Dr. Alysson Muotri, who is leading the study.
Socialization
The importance of societies in the evolutionary journey
The fact that Neanderthal neurons make fewer synaptic connections than those of modern humans, seems to indicate that this might have affected Neanderthals' ability to socialize and form increasingly large societies. This is important, considering that our dominance, evolutionarily, stemmed from our ability to form societies much larger than was possible on an interpersonal basis. These large societies helped us collectively tackle evolutionary hurdles.
Future plans
Neanderthal v/s human brain show down on the cards
The researchers, from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), are now wiring the Neanderoids to crab-like robots. The idea is to pit these Neanderoid-operated robots against similar robots operated by human mini-brains in a bid to understand the difference between how Neanderthal minds, and Homo sapiens' minds learn. Now, we'll have to wait and see what these scientists find.