The Neanderthal theory of Autism

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I don't think the theory is saying we are like a different species. It is saying autism exists because of fragments left over from Neanderthal DNA. It is causing our alleles to "switch off" due to incompatibility issues. It sounds seductive at first, but remember the last direct offspring of Neanderthal/Cro-Magnon would have existed over 24,000 years ago and that's a long time for alleles and DNA fragments. They wouldn't change in all that time and would be affecting generations today? Doesn't sound plausible.

It doesn't sound like this theory is saying we are like Neanderthal, just our dysfunctional alleles have their origins in the original cross breeding between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. It doesn't mean autistics have traits of Neanderthals. That's my understanding of it, anyway.

Err, not. It says that LFA is caused by incompability issues, not the personality. communication and social traits. The latter traits are indeed Hn heritage. Since there is lot of dilution of Hn-traits, it is not correct to call autistics for a different species either. Hardly any autistic have all the Hn traits, and hardly no NT have no Hn traits. Our species is a hybrid.

Just one problem. Being asexual is not related to sexual orientations, it is related to social & environmental issues. In essence, asexuality is the consequence of a lack of suitable partners and a deprived environment. Just as it is in other species.



Probably because our general recognition ability is enhanced due to the need to use it on human faces,

Humans and chimpanzees share traits, does this mean our species created hybrids 25,000 years ago?
Since it's been roughly 25,000 years since the last direct hybrid was produced it is unlikely the Neanderthal traits would be discernable today as distinct from those of homo sapiens.
Theoretically we do not know if they were capable of producing offspring but since it was so long ago, time elapsation has made such hybrids a bit obsolete.

No one seems to even read one of the most contradicting facts with this theory. Japan does not have any ties to neanderthals but the rate of autism in Japan is many times higher than in most "white" european countries.

Germany has the lowest rates of autism in the developed world. The entire idea that whites are more autistic is wrong. The most autistic people are japanese and koreans.

Not so. In a recent survey in Britain, I think the largest ever of its kind, 1% of respondents answered that they had never felt sexually drawn to another human being.

That's an awesome point, Zoonic! The theory doesn't explain the prevelance of autism in such an homogenous population, either, one that has been fairly isolated for quite some time.

Diagnosis is not much of an indication because it depends on culture and many other factors.

The latest results on the prevalence issue is that only people of african descent have lower prevalence rate. Not germans, not japenese. There is around 4.2% asians in the US, and 1% amerindian, and these groups do show similar interest rates as Caucasians. The Neandertthal theory claims introgression happened first in Central Asia, and this population spread both to East Asia and Europe. Therefore, there is no inconsistence with similar ASD-rates in much of Northern Asia.

Quite likely as this figure seems to be similar to that of the general population. It was the nuch higher rate in ASCs that I attributed to environmental and social factors.

Still, even such a survey need to control for mate value to hold much relevance.

No, the reason to believe we are a hybrid species is the two factors (Aspie and neurotypical) that come out of factor-analysis of broad surveys, and that tend to explain 60-70% of our diversity.



Except for one thing. Asortative mating. Asortative mating can keep traits clustered for a long time.

I don't think you understand this issue. Facial physical traits are not controlled by the same genes that process faces. Therefore, the physical traits of Hn can have disappeared almost completely, while the recognition circuit for Hn faces could be retained in much higher frequencies. This is not a trait that can be selected out easily because it is not externally visible.

And now for something completely different...

Pete Townshend, suspected Aspie:

"Dangerous"

Can you feel it in the shadows?
Watching you, touching you
Changing you into a mad dog.
Howling at the moon.
And you're so far out of tune
Better learn how to sing.
Fences, we put up our defences.
Then we come to our senses.
It may keep them out
But it keeps us in
And that makes us dangerous
We're all dangerous to ourselves

This is a jungle, not illusion,
Jungle city, in confusion,
We are the next step in evolution,
The new stone age revolution.
Back to the stone age constitution.
No solution

Can you feel it in the shadows?
Watching you, touching you,
Can you feel it in the shadows?
Follow you, swallow you.
Can you feel it?
Fear is the key.
Can you feel it?
Fear is the key.
Can you feel it? Can you feel it?
Fear is the key to your soul.

We have?

Oh, yes!

In respects to the diagnosed crowd we're starting at a much more obvious level than the US.

What we consider hf and mild here are still obvious cases.

Whereas hf and mild in the US means AS can be totally invisible and - even parents say so - 'not a problem' which always makes me wonder why the heck they ran to the doctor because of 'no problem' and got 'no problem' diagnosed with a label that says they have a a severe disorder/a pervasive developmental disorder.

I expect the rates of diagnoses in Germany to go up fast though. More adults nowadays seek out professionals as information about AS is spread.

Media is trying to push political correctness stuff, but I'm well aware that there are scientific studies that does not.

Anyway, here are a couple of problems that need to be addressed:
1. We need to know the genetic background of a bunch of autistic personality-traits.
2. When we have this background, we can look at the Hn genome for these variants.

Todays genetic ASC research is clearly misguided. People are trying to do this:
1. Find LFA mutations that parents don't have
2. Find broad linkage between diagnosis and DNA.

None of the above methods are useful for validation of the Hn link.

Today, we don't even know how many of these personality-traits are genetically coded. The "novelity seeking gene" is actually a CNV (Copy Number Variation) and not a regular mutation. If autistic traits mostly can be explained with CNVs, todays scanning-techniques will fail (they indeed do) and the Hn link will be much harder to verify. This is because the Hn sequences are very short, and therefore copy numbers will be hard to assert.

It is a positive NT-trait. This trait evolved as an adaptation for group-hunting / distance hunting. Since Hn didn't have this kind of hunting, they never evolved better motor abilities. Therefore, Hn retained the ancestral type, and some autistics inherit the ancestral type from them, and thus have poorer motor abilities than NTs in general. Another factor is that Hns hunting method even might have worked against these traits and favoured different motor abilities, like being immune to being turned around and thrown around.

The modern AS wave with the revival of the diagnosis and the tendency to diagnose "invisible" people didn't start in the US. Back in the 90's it was like that in Sweden and then the US still hardly used the term "AS" just "HFA" and most AS people were undiagnosed becasue it wasn't evident enough.

People from France and Germany who came to Sweden actually got diagnosed here, while working/living etc. The diagnosing is so extreme in Sweden that according to Gillberg 1 in 300 has AS here. I don't believe those figures for a second and the ridiculously high rates of AS here have also met heavy skepticism and opposition from the press and certain anti-diagnosis psychiatrists. AS diagnosing is way out of hand here and anyone who's slightly nerdy is diagnosed with AS.