According to previous research it is evident that our complex cognitive abilities might have arisen strictly from a genetic mistake made hundreds of millions years ago. The idea that a few extra copies of a certain gene labeled Dlg2 were genetically made in an invertebrate long ago might have caused the rise to intelligent thinking. At the same time, what makes this a double-edged sword is that these scientists have been able to confirm a link between higher cognitive thinking to more mental illnesses arising. What is crazy is that is it possible that we have evolved to think more cognitively and more intelligently than other species of animals at the cost of a rise in being more susceptible to mental illness? In a way this makes sense to me strictly on the basis of thinking genetically, if there are more and more genes related to cognitive thinking then there must be a higher chance that a mutation can occur. What is everyone else's opinion on this idea?
University of Edinburgh. "Origin of intelligence and mental illness linked to ancient genetic accident." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 2 December 2012. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121202164325.htm.
What is it that causes the correlation between mental illness and cognitive thinking? Do they believe that the correlation is due to the gene as well?
ReplyDeleteThis makes sense. Most geniuses are insane. I wonder if this could be linked to autism.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I guess it makes sense when you think about it. If our ability for thinking intelligently arose from a genetic mutation hundreds of millions of years ago, I would guess that other mutations could follow from that since our DNA is "mutated" to begin with?
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree with Lauren wondering if this could be linked to autism. A lot of people with mental disabilities are profoundly intelligent in certain areas. I have an autistic brother for example, and he can tell you what exact day of the week August 2nd was in 1952, or something like that.
I've also seen some studies about this, and the way I understand it is that they are finding links between higher intelligence and disorders like paranoia and paranoid schizophrenia. The researchers say that they believe that this is the remnant of an evolutionary mechanism wherein those with higher intelligence were able to use this intelligence to predict unlikely scenarios which presented danger and predict predatory and other behavior, and that since we no longer face as many stressful situations these mechanisms in higher intelligence individuals of current populations run rampant and lead to what we perceive as 'mental instability', but might have provided for greater fitness thousands of years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of disappointing that the full article is behind a paywall. One of the things that the article abstract mentions is that copy number has been relatively stable for more than 100 million years, long before the diversification of most mammalian lineages. I think unless one can see homology in behavioral traits associated with these genes very clearly, I wouldn't be so quick to assign much responsibility for most human psychological disorders to gene mutations. Behaviors are notoriously difficult to quantify and homologize. Plus, we have very good evidence that many human psychological disorders are associated with trauma...an environmental phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic. I think I would be quicker to agree with this possibility with stronger evidence, but linking mental illness to higher intelligence seems like it could be plausible to me.
ReplyDeleteThis is very intriguing. I think that the double edged sword you speak of could be caused by mutations however I think to link it to mental illness a persons history ( such as physical trauma to the head) needs to be closely considered.
ReplyDeleteI found this article to be rather unsound. Like Dr. Randle said, the assumption that mental illness is linked to gene mutations I have a hard time to agree with. Trauma is definitely a consideration, but also genetics itself, more specifically family history. Also take into account chemistry within the brain and the affects drugs have on the brain. All of this I would think has more of an impact on psychological disorders then gene mutations.
ReplyDeletelike everyone else it seems unlikely that all mental illnesses are linked to genes that cause cognitive thinking. I know some disabilities are heritable such as dyslexia but there has been some relatively sound research on autism being a result of several allergic reactions and food sensitivities. But I think it could be possible that cognitive thinking was caused by a mutation. Just about everything in evolution was a mutation at one point.
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