https://www.ocl-jour.../ocl170035.html
"Secondly, a stimulating factor: mutations in the FADS2 gene, which encodes Δ6-desaturase; a key enzyme for the synthesis of DHA and sapienic acid. The polymorphism of this gene appears to have been essential in allowing the Homo genus to adapt to its food, and for its evolution. It provides an undeniable advantage in terms of the productivity of fat synthesis (DHA), and may partly explain positive selection. With the advent of cooking and new mutations producing even more FADS2, the brain reached its maximum size in Homo neanderthalensis, in a food ecosystem that provided favorable quantities of α-Linolenic acid and DHA. However, the Würm glaciation upset this equilibrium, revealing its fragility as regards to the brain and fertility. Homo sapiens, benefiting from new variants of the FADS2 gene, were able to adapt to this harsh environment, whereas Neanderthal man was unable to do so and became extinct."
https://phys.org/new...n-key-role.html
The studies are published in the journals of Hormones and Behavior and of Integrative and Comparative Biology.
The first paper compares the subspecies in their expression of enzymes that make testosterone within the gonad. The second paper investigates how the subspecies' gonads differ in the expression of stress hormone receptor genes, which are known to lower testosterone.
http://surgicalneuro...e-and-aluminum/
Other neutraceuticals that may be of benefit in treating autism spectrum disorder
A number of nutraceuticals have been shown to improve mitochondrial function, including thiamine, riboflavin-5 phosphate, pyridoxal-5 phosphate, ascorbate, acetyl-L-carnitine, pyruvate, malate, CoQ10, curcumin, niacinamide, ketones, DHA, vitamins K, folate and methylcobalamin.[ 64 99
https://www.nature.c...1586-018-0127-x
Our approach yields quantitative predictions for brain and body size from formalized social hypotheses given empirical estimates of the metabolic costs of the brain. Our model predicts the evolution of adult Homo sapiens-sized brains and bodies when individuals face a combination of 60% ecological, 30% cooperative and 10% between-group competitive challenges, and suggests that between-individual competition has been unimportant for driving human brain-size evolution. Moreover, our model indicates that brain expansion in Homo was driven by ecological rather than social challenges, and was perhaps strongly promoted by culture. Our metabolic approach thus enables causal assessments that refine, refute and unify hypotheses of brain-size evolution.
The lack of chemosensory communication of biologically relevant information between humans in the face of the need to make adaptive and accurate social evaluations, led to an exaption of mammalian chemosensory brain regions for the more complex task of inferring social values from behavioural cues that are variable, ambiguous, or otherwise difficult to detect and interpret. This change in social processing from perceptual evaluation to inferential computation placed a premium on cognitive capacity, thus selecting for larger more powerful brains. These selective processes would have left an indelible mark on the human brain, where the human homologues of regions involved in mammalian conspecific chemical communication, in particular the target regions of this study the amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), should be involved in the processing of biologically relevant information and social inference
