←back to thread

A human-accelerated neuron type potentially underlying autism in humans

(academic.oup.com)
185 points ivewonyoung | 2 comments | 28 Sep 25 23:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.439s | source
Show context
thorncorona ◴[29 Sep 25 00:42 UTC] No.45409364[source]▶
> In summary, we introduce a general principle governing neuronal evolution and suggest that the exceptionally high prevalence of autism in humans may be a direct result of natural selection for lower expression of a suite of genes that conferred a fitness benefit to our ancestors while also rendering an abundant class of neurons more sensitive to perturbation.

I don't see how the title "Autism may be the price of human intelligence, linked to human brain evolution" is at all related to the paper?

replies(2): >>45409409 #>>45410797 #
1. zeroonetwothree ◴[29 Sep 25 06:13 UTC] No.45410797[source]▶
The idea is that the same evolutionary process that rapidly selected human brains for intelligence also selected for autism as a side effect. Perhaps because the genes are proximally linked or it’s just the way brains work or some other random reason.

It is NOT saying that for specific individuals intelligence is correlated with autism. That is actually not the case.

replies(1): >>45411927 #
2. ◴[29 Sep 25 09:54 UTC] No.45411927[source]▶