The take home is that the multiple appearance of this protein
controls brain size and this is unexpected.
The next question of course is to discover if any variation exists in
the human population. I cringe of course on this one. The answer
could be annoying.
My own take is that a combination of natural talent needs to be
combined with substantial brain training at the right time for an
optimal result. The same also holds true for muscle training.
An intensive feeding and progressive muscle training program during
the puberty growth spurt will produce a Tarzan who maintains
definition effortlessly thereafter. Of course most kids are fat sods
during that time with no good outcome.
Post puberty is the best time to focus on brain training for a solid
decade.
However, it is also true that ninety five percent of the population
or more will struggle to accommodate mathematics and as many will
never display a photographic memory. Yet I am still not so sure on
all that. I strongly suspect that we simply have not learned
protocols that can release each and everyone of our real talents. If
you must work at it, you surely have it wrong!
A protein particle
that made humans most intelligent found
by PHENOMENICA on AUGUST
20, 2012
in SCIENCE
Scientists
have discovered that a tiny particle within a protein allowed
humans to become the most intelligent creatures on the planet.
Researchers from the
University of Colorado found that the protein domain issue known as
DUF1220 holds the key to understanding why our brains are so much
bigger and more complex than any other animal, the Daily Mail
reported.
DUF1220 is a protein
domain of unknown function that shows a striking human-specific
increase in copy number is considered important to human brain
evolution.
Humans have more than
270 copies of DUF1220 encoded in their DNA, far more than other
species.
“This research
indicates that what drove the evolutionary expansion of the human
brain may well be a specific unit within a protein – called a
protein domain – that is far more numerous in humans than other
species,” Professor James Sikela from the University said.
The closer a species
is to humans, the more copies of DUF1220 show up. Chimpanzees have
the next highest number, 125. Gorillas have 99, marmosets 30 and
mice just one.
“The one over-riding
theme that we saw repeatedly was the more copies of DUF1220 in the
genome, the bigger the brain. And this held true whether we
looked at different species or within the human population,” Sikela
was quoted as saying by the paper.
It may also explain
how human brain’s unequalled mental capacity evolved so rapidly and
dramatically, a mystery that has baffled researchers for decades.
The modern human brain
is three times larger in volume than those of the great apes, our
closest living relatives.
More importantly, its
ratio to body size is significantly larger and it has a much greater
cerebral cortex, the area that controls higher thought processes,
with a higher concentration of neurons.
The study was
published in The American Journal of Human Genetics.
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