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'Master Gene' Makes Mouse Brain Look More Human
sciencehabit writes "Researchers have found a genetic mutation that causes mammalian neural tissue to expand and fold. When they mutated this gene in mice, the rodents developed brains that look more like ours (abstract). The discovery may help explain why humans evolved more elaborate brains than mice, and it could suggest ways to treat disorders such as autism and epilepsy that arise from abnormal neural development. The findings go against a common conception that 'dumber species will have different genes' for brain development than more intelligent species, Borrell says. He adds that the mechanism could help explain how New World monkeys, with their small, smooth brains, could have evolved from an ancestor with a bigger and more folded brain."
I was somehow hoping this study was done at NIMH.
Same thing we do every night Pinky - try to take over the world.
I wish journalists would stop including the mandatory bit about how this might lead to such and such practical applications when reporting on scientific discoveries. Knowledge is worth pursuing even if it doesn't lead to any practical applications.
No need for name calling. Treat our American friends with respect, please.
they will take over the world!
... when the mice become self-aware.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Should be called the Pinky gene
No "Flowers for Algeron" jokes yet.
"..from an ancestor with a bigger and more folded brai" Someone's brain forgot to fold one last time...
So that's how the Master will return in season 7.
Welp, better get my plasma rifle and powered armor ready for the coming hordes of super mutants.
Very disappointed at the suggestion that autism is a "disorder".
I want to know if the folding increases their intelligence in any measurable way.
People already commented on how it's annoying that reporters always need to come up with some practical application for any given news about research, when the simple research would be enough.. But instead of suggesting that this research leads to better understanding of evolution, which is already in declining popularity among muggles thanks to the Christian Right, why not suggest that these mutant mice could make better human analogues, and help test treatments against brain disease?
Sorry, I didn't notice the obviously expected part where the mice scream. Where they scream endlessly and in complete, utter horror over their brains developing themselves into completely alien shapes, introducing impossibly horrifying images completely unknown to mousekind, redefining the very basis of the word "wrong". Terrible thoughts brought on by the interloping existence of a human brain into its own awareness, bringing with it unstoppable, infinite nightmares of tax forms, awkward dates, skinning your knees falling off of a bicycle, and the full realization of the Doritos Loco Taco. And the mouse knows it is all wrong. The hopeless, quickly vanishing parts of the mouse's brain that is a mouse's brain can only see wrong. The only possible response is to scream. A primal, universal scream of which all life, all of existence understands, the final, desperate attempt to repel what should not be, what cannot be. But the mouse cannot even scream. The mouse lacks the vocal cords to scream. Without this, without even the basest of mental defenses, it is forced to endure the full onslaught of human thought with no recourse, unable to even question the eldritch meaning of a taco made from goddamned Doritos, I mean seriously, come ON now.
What are we going to do today Brain? Same as we do every day Pinky, try to conquer the world!
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
100 years from now, the human race will label us traitors to the species for not nuking these mice from orbit.
It was not necessary.
Do you know what that thing between our ears "costs" our body? 20% of our total energy output is gobbled up by that thing! For 2% of the body mass. It better be effin' worth it!
Evolution will never allow something that's not strictly beneficial for survival and reproduction to prevail. A bigger brain needs more food, and in times of shortages, mice who would evolve a bigger brain would starve to death first. They don't win anything from higher intelligence, on the other hand.
We did. Mostly because we are, essentially speaking, a big evolutionary mistake. We shouldn't exist anymore, honestly. We're terrible at staying alive. We can't run fast, we're not strong, we can't hide easily, we have no fur or feathers to keep us warm (which means we have to burn a LOT of calories just to heat up the air around us in cold periods!)... We are, essentially, an evolutionary mistake. If it wasn't for that brain that allowed us to develop tools to compensate our shortcomings. In our species, higher intelligence actually meant better chances of survival. Yes, our brain costs a fortune to support and "run" it (and if our body was a corporation it would have been axed years ago), but the advantages outweigh that.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
So I will finally be able to buy mouse-brain humans for chores around the house?
How would its emotional state be affected by learning of the humans' treatments of its species?
I've got the penis genes of a mouse. Thanks, nature.
Is marked as interesting. I'm sorry. If science is all laser beams are pew pew awesome, then fine. Whatever. I dig it. But this is actual science. You should be begging for more of this shit, and less of the shit I see here before me.
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Didn't we learn anything from the Secret of NIMH?
We found the "Master Gene", now all we need is the "Blaster Gene", and we'll finally be able to Run Barter Town!
what they seem to have discovered is that one and the same gene in each species can mutate in a different way and cause two different brain types. That is a single gene mutates rather than two separate and unique genes. From TFA:
"Because the human cerebral cortex is generally considered "special," some scientists have hypothesized that the genes that govern its development of cortical folds and furrows are also unique to humans..."
Apparently these scientists hypothesized wrong.
I for one welcome our new rodent overlords.
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
It wasn't a mutation they talk about in this paper but rather a gene that is different expressed in mice and Human. This little difference leads to remarkable different brain size. It is a big step towards understanding why our brain has this huge cortex (which is folded) and it is this cortex where all our higher brain functions are located, Math, language, etc. Of course a big brain is not necessary more intelligent than a smaller brain, but given the right input while its develops it is far superior to every other brain. For prove see history...
"People who are willing to sacrifice essential freedoms for security deserve neither freedom nor security."
B F
Now this will happend!!!! :-)
http://www.doomsteaddiner.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/pinky_brain.jpg
The same thing we do every night. Uh-Uh-Uh-Uh-Uh-Uh-Uh
" He adds that the mechanism could help explain how New World monkeys, with their small, smooth brains, could have evolved from an ancestor with a bigger and more folded brain."
Instead of constantly trying to find ways to explain things within the framework of a preconception why not simply take the evidence for what it suggests. We do not share a common ancestor.
Did the mice with more brain sound like Orson Welles?
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes