Have YOU been tested for Neanderthal genes?

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The real granddaddy of all working scientists today was not galileo, nor newton, nor copernicus, but a certain smooth talking Italian sailor with no science diploma who managed to talk certain powers-at-be into giving him a research grant. This first ever research grant in human history was to test the sailor's theory that the edge of asia was only six hundred miles west of the Azores- and thus an easy hop by boat from western europe. Folks laughed at him.

But he got the grant and bought three ships- and tested his theory by sailing west in 1492.
And guess what!

The folks who laughed at him were proved RIGHT! They all thought that the planet had to be much bigger than this crazy Italian said it was, and they were proved right ( asia starts 12 thousand miles west of the Azores).

It was a friggin' dumb theory. But in the act of testing his theory the guy accidently stumbled upon two new huge continents that were previously unknown.

Anyway.
The Neanderthal theory of autism/aspergers is in, in my opinion, probably like columbus's small earth theory. Probably wrong, but interesting, and worth looking into nontheless. Its the kind of thing that may cause us to stumble upon a new continent or two even if its wrong.

It costs money to get your genes tested. So far only rockstars like ozzy osbourne can afford it. He found that he had some significant smidgen of neanderthal DNA ( he has dyslexia but I doubt that he has autism-he seems more adhd in personality than aspie to me).

There is a certain logic to the neanderthal-autism link theory. But I agree with the op that you could just as easily argue the opposite notion.

Perhaps autistics and aspies are less primate and are more Sapien than most homo sapiens! The fact that we miss social cues fail to read body language and take verbal comunication too litereally shows that we are less monkey like- than most people - and are sort of inbred over sapien sapiens. This might mean that we have a pausity of archaic homid genes, and not an over supply of them.We are farther from the apes than NT's- and thats the problem with us!

Just a thought.

My first reaction is that NT's are more like primitive species (groupthink, herd/gang mentality, etc.) than aspies are, from a behavioral standpoint. The neanderthals must have heavily depended on nonverbal communication also, which aspies suck at.

Columbus did not discover the Americas. Read some History.

Im aware that the paleoIndians discovered America in the Ice Age.
I didnt claim that the they didnt.
That people got there first has absolutely no baring on the point I was making.

The fact that you think that your comment is relevent shows that you obviously cant handle having a discussion with grownups, so just runalong and play now please.

Sorry to hear about that kind of problem in your family.

Gosh - the things theyre learning these days.
But at the same time -that the stuff theyre 'learning' isnt that solidly proven.

That issue of the guardian also has an article that questions whether our neanderthal and denisovian genes really came from cross breeding and not from a common earlier ancestor.

But -gosh-IF they can prove that lupis, or whatever, might be linked to having neanderthal genes that might lend credence to the idea that autism might be related to neanderthal genes as well.

Thanks. That's genetics for you.

I think there is a stronger case for crossbreeding than just a common ancestor, but it will probably go back and forth with studies until they come to a conclusion. As it should, as long as it leads to more information and not just the dismissal of a hypothesis for no reason. That recent study didn't take into account the auto-immune stuff either (neanderthal remains with rheumatism etc) or why Homo sapiens would react so badly when they have the HLA alleles found in Neanderthals.

Yes, if they can prove that, it's a really strong case for autism being linked to neanderthal genes.

I suspect that it is more likely that everyone has some amount of "Neanderthal genes" and they have little or nothing to do with Autism at all.

Not if you're from Sub-Saharan Africa, then you don't have any.

The small amount of autism in people of that descent relative to in people of european descent (who have the biggest % of Neanderthal genes) also speaks volumes.