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Ancient Viruses Altered Human Brains

Posted by Soulskill on from the why-you-have-that-nervous-twitch dept.

giulioprisco writes: A new study from Lund University in Sweden (abstract) indicates inherited viruses that are millions of years old play an important role in building up the complex networks that characterize the human brain. The Lund study shows that retroviruses seem to play a central role in the basic functions of the brain — over the course of evolution, the viruses took an increasingly firm hold on the steering wheel in our cellular machinery. In particular, the retroviruses seem to play an important role in the regulation of which genes are to be expressed, and when."

4 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Agent Smith was Right by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Agent Smith: "I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops an equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet; you are a plague and we are the cure."

    1. Re:Agent Smith was Right by dasunt · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Agent Smith: "I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops an equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not.

      Cute sentimentality, but considering how obviously untrue it is, that monologue always bugged me.

      First off, what areas have humans consumed so many natural resources that they can no longer survive there? About the only arguable cases I can think of is areas of desertification - and even then, humans do manage to live there.

      Second, mammals have no instinct to come to an equilibrium with their environment. E.g. rabbits in Australia - introduced a century ago, and definitely did not come to an homeostasis with the environment they found - instead, growing so numerous that they are a serious ecological problem.

  2. Sex, radiation and now viruses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A few years ago New Scientist had an interesting article that made me look at viruses in a different light.
    It basically said that viruses allow different species to exchange genetic material beyond what would be possible with
    sex alone. They had some example like the development of the placenta :
    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2012/02/14/mammals-made-by-viruses/

  3. Error in TFA by Prune · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the article: "tumours cannot form in nerve cells". This, of course, is BS that was discredited a couple of years ago: http://m.medicalxpress.com/new... Perhaps we should have a Slashdot discussion on lazy scientists failing to keep up with developments in their own field. If you write without bothering to read, you end up with... well, something like Slashdot...

    --
    "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."