Autism may be related to the human specific evolution of higher intelligence:
Researchers discovered that autism’s prevalence may be linked to human brain evolution. Specific neurons in the outer brain evolved rapidly, and autism-linked genes changed under natural selection. These shifts may have slowed brain development in children while boosting language and cognition. The findings suggest autism is part of the trade-off that made humans so cognitively advanced.
so Yunxian 2 may have Autism
ReplyDeleteThat's certainly possible, not that there would be any way to diagnose it at our great remove without a high quality ancient DNA sample.
ReplyDeletewhat about neanderthal genome
ReplyDeleteMaybe soon. But for now, without a good understanding of how Autism is caused and develops, or even a widely accepted definition of what classifies as Autism, it's hard to say what alleles or epigenetic marks to check for.
ReplyDelete