Neanderthal Autism

Posted by James Bowery on Monday, 13 November 2006 20:27.

For over 10 years (actually more like 20) I’ve been saying some of my best friends are Neanderthals. For a much shorter time I’ve been saying that there should be more attention paid to the fragility of humans evolved to push the frontiers of the ecological range of humanity (although I had the seeds of this idea 8 years earlier). For an even shorter time I’ve been saying that the recent explosion of autism may be exhibiting that fragility in the form of higher incidence among people related to those at the frontiers of humanity in Europe, specifically the Finns or possibly the Saami, as technologically amplified mixing of human ecologies put them in contact with other human ecologies, specifically, that of Asian Indians.

It has been known for some time that both Neanderthals and autists (at least in their early development) have approximately 10% larger brains than neurotypical humans. What hasn’t been known in the published literature until just this last month is not only (as previously reported here in MR) that Neanderthals may have contributed substantially to human macrocephaly (larger brains) but the macrocephaly of autists may not be a sign of pathology—rather part of their genetic heritage.

This is particularly poignant for me because when I posted back in 1994 “some of my best friends are Neanderthal” I had in mind specifically a friend who was working in Palo Alto, CA at a startup of about 100 employees where 4 families would have children diagnosed with autism within the next few years (one of those diagnoses was downgraded to Aspergers). One of those children was the first born son of the “Neanderthal” friend of mine. That boy remains profoundly autistic—unable to talk at all. (I also have a blood relative with Aspergers born to an Rh- mother whose brother suffered from autism—which anecdotally reinforces the “frontiers of the ecological range” susceptibility hypothesis but I admit these anecdotes are more poignant than necessarily relevant.)

I should close by referencing the website of an “aspie” (person with Asperger’s syndrome) Swede who has gathered a lot of data over the years supporting his own Neanderthal theory of autism. He doesn’t do much in the way of providing any explanations for why there should be a dramatic increase in autism but he does do a good job of compiling generally relevant studies for arguing how Neanderthal lineages may be susceptible.

PS: There is only one published study I know of that supposedly “debunks” the above-mentioned ethnic correlate with autism—and that study (conducted by neighbors of the Berkeley “autism epidemiologist” who refused to look into the microcluster in Palo Alto I reported above) lists a number of predictors of “autism”—one of which is a black mother. The problem is other predictors, such as high education of the mother, advanced age of the mother, negatively correlate with being a black mother. This could mean that black mothers are particularly prone to bear “autists” if they are educated and/or delay motherhood but it could also quite easily point to a pre-existing different developmental pathway leading to similar symptomatology, but which has not been contributing substantially to the increased incidence of autism. Certainly there are no accepted biological tests to discriminate “autists” from other pathologies and much of the difficulty we see in statistical analyses of autism may simply be the confusion of these various developmental pathways leading to similar syndromes.

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Posted by Caveman on Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:03 | #

There is a project underway (unfortunately spearheaded by race-denier Svante Paabo) to sequence the entire Neanderthal genome. From initial reports, the project is going smoothly and Paabo has perfected methodologies to deal wth the issues of contamination and other artifacts.

If the genome is successfully sequenced, with a reasonably high confidence level of accuracy, then it would be a matter of identifying Neanderthalic gene frequency distributions and putting together the proper algorithms in order to determine percent Neanderthal ancestry in any individual or group.

Posted by James Bowery on Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:24 | #

Paabo is the guy who was also given custody of the 5000 year old “Iceman mummy” aka “Ötzi” found in the Swiss Alps as a glacier melted.

Paabo, when asked, what nationality Ötzi was most related to came up with that old travesty of an argument saying basically “If you go back in time N generations then would have to have had 2**N ancestors and of course that’s ridiculous. Hence we’re all related to everyone if we go back that far.” It’s like Paabo never took Probability and Statistics 101 as a freshman in whatever travesty of an academic institution he trained in.

How can the same utter incompetent of a researcher keep receiving precious resources like the remains of Ötzi or Neanderthals?

Posted by Caveman on Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:34 | #

“How can the same utter incompetent of a researcher keep receiving precious resources like the remains of Ötzi or Neanderthals?”

That *is* the reason. So, if data comes up that is inconvenient from a political standpoint, Paabo can “spin” it away (assuming said data actually ever sees the light of day).

Paabo gets rewarded for his race-denying assertions.

The sad thing is that I’d trust a race-realist like Neil Risch (an Ashkenazim) with genetic resources than a guy like Paabo.

Posted by Retew on Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:42 | #

I’m an Aspie myself, as I said on Stormfront a while back, and as far as I know the condition has been associated with brain “maleness”, i.e. there are very few girls with the condition compared to boys. I also read a while back that it’s due to reptilian brain dominance.

In all honesty theories in this field are two a penny, you pays your money and takes your choice. I see nothing to connect it to Neanderthal brains though.

Posted by James Bowery on Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:29 | #

Read <a >Race, Gender and the Frontier</a> if you think the Neanderthals, the exemplar of frontier breeds, and masculinity are not related.

Posted by Bo Sears on Thu, 16 Nov 2006 03:09 | #

This link is to an article published today by the San Jose Mercury News about SF Bay Area researchers looking into Neanderthal DNA. It may or may not be of interest:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/16012927.htm

Posted by ben tillman on Mon, 12 Feb 2007 01:13 | #

From a response by “Robert Hartman” on the Usenet thread:

“It wasn’t the ‘deep culture’ people who colonized the globe and systematically undermined those thousands of other cultures through force.”

Says who? Is there any reason to think those colonial ventures were different from the U.S. regime’s adventures in Iraq? I.e., actions of a ‘deep-culture’ people using a ‘shallow-culture’ people as an instrumentality?