Gene mutation linked to cognition found only in humans

摘要

The human and chimpanzee genomes vary by just 1.2 percent, yet there is a substantial difference in the mental and linguistic capabilities between the two species. A new study showed that a certain form of neuropsin, a protein that plays a role in learning and memory, is expressed only in the central nervous systems of humans and that it originated less than five million years ago. The study, which also demonstrated the molecular mechanism that creates this novel protein, has been recently published online in Human Mutation, official journal of the Human Genome Variation Society.