Autism and "occipital buns"

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The physical traits of Neanderthals seems to have been lost (more or less) and those that persist shows weak to non-existant correlation with being Aspie. This is unfortunate, but not surprising. If ASDs still were strongly linked with Neanderthal physical traits, they would be easy to spot (and eliminate). Humans have strong dislikes for most traits that Neanderthals had, which probably evolved as the majority NTs tried to get rid of the competing genome. They only succeeded in getting rid of the physical traits. The mental traits develop late and are much easier to hide, and thus could not be used to "put the baby in the woods".

Neanderthal outlived the Cro Magnons. It was a short lived type.
Like all early people Neanderthal had brow ridges, an occipital bun, and a back sloping forehead.

Modern humans from 125,000 years ago had higher foreheads, much less brow ridge, like it had unfolded upward. They had a very round brain case, as seen from above, and had a dorsal crest and occipital bun. This higher forehead then shows in older homo erectus lines back in Africa, showing an extended breeding pool.

It is not just the skull, but the shape of the brain, and there Neanderthal had a much larger occipital region, where vision is processed. We are sight hunters, with weak ears and nose, compared, so they were likely very visual.

Seen from above, their skulls are longer than wide.

The next model, 40,000 years ago, has traits of both, they are called Long Heads, skulls longer front to back than wide, they have the high forehead, and instead of the back of the skull ending in a point, it unfolds, reducing the occipital bun. They are now called long oval.

While early species have a rounded skull along the sides, coming up to a dorsal crest, a new ridge formed running down both sides, from the top of the temple to the back of the skull, and the dorsal crest diminishes. Another unfolding, adding volume in the speech area, temporal lobes, and this design reaches full development in Cro Magnon, who quickly die out as they seemed to have been too big headed.

The design continues with smaller skulls of the same design.

The high forehead spreads south, among round heads, while the long heads are found to the north, which points to a Neanderthal mix, as they had larger brains, and long skulls. Prior changes had taken millions of years, the change in the north comes suddenly, and produces Cro Magnon.

That would fit with a slightly higher problem with giving birth to such big heads, for when most were near 1.5 meters, Cro Magnon men were well over 2 meters. In the same design the smaller models survived better, so that is what is left.

Brow ridges, dorsal crests, occipital buns, have survived, recently, but as rdos says, babies with different traits, skull form, covered in hair, and anything else seen as a defect, were left in the woods. They were not the real child, that had been taken by elves, which left a changling in it's place.

Skulls do point to a Neanderthal mix, but intelligence is another story, most brains conserve energy, turn on the TV, sit on the couch, which takes less energy than sleeping.

Aspies do have one displaced early trait, their focus on special interests is much like the Neanderthal who's special interest was killing something to eat. Tunnel vision, obsession, are hunters traits, and we do find modern applications. Much like their seasonal life, sometimes they fed along the coast, sometimes the herd migrations, sometimes hunting game that did not migrate.

Fishing skills do not work in hunting, so one obsession stops, another starts. What would have worked for Neanderthal is still shown in Aspies.

While intelligence may be seen as an aspie trait, it is as a splinter skill, learning everything about one subject, at the cost of ignoring eating, sleeping, bathing, talking, but we do get things done.

I was told I was not the smartest person around, but I was the only one who would spend hundreds on books, study a subject till I mastered it, which had nothing to do with my life or income. I like Geology.

There have been a long list of special interests, and it does run out. What is known can be learned, but after a few, the space between come into focus, and no one has ever looked there. We learn parts, but reality is the function of a whole system which no part can define.

In Consilience, Edward O. Wilson calls for just such general studies to unify the knowledge we have into larger systems.

We are naturals. Most never master any one subject, but it is entry level for seeing how that knowledge fits with other fields, which are where new discoveries come from.

As this has been mostly done in northern Europe, I would see it as a carryover of Neanderthal hunting traits.

We are children who never stop asking, "Why."

I do not understand the connection between Neanderthals and Aspies/Auties, especially with regard to cerebellar function, which in some Aspies (like Temple Grandin and me!) there is a malfunction with regard to co-ordination. Neanderthals were very well co-ordinated humanoids, especially with regard to ringing down big game. Or, perhaps evolution selected this trait out, at least in some of us?

The hyperfocussing of aspies seems something different than that of Neanderthals who were supposed to use it for hunting.

It is applied very differently, so it seems very unlikely indeed. Also if it was true, all people with this skull shape should generally be more aspie-like, while i never noticed this with people who have it. I tend to think the opposite accually, if I think in stereotypes of what a typical aspie looks like...

Skull shape in not related to behavior.

Well This isn't exactly a normal skull but I can't do much better in mspaint with a mouse to be worth the time for this post/
Is this what you mean by occipital bun?

I have a well defined one I don't really know if it's normal or not since me and most people have hair covering it.
although I have pretty much a typical round cranium with a typical+ forehead bone size. I used to study this when I was reading about neanderthals.

the neanderthal - asd thing is mostly bs as we don't really know anything near that about neanderthals to make that conclusion.
do mind the cro magons that killed them were much larger than the neanderthals and had a bigger brain (1600cc cranial capacity vs 1400 avg and our modern value of a healthy 1000 to 1500)



you might also mean having a pointy occipital bone versus a two curved one. erm...

this is what I was taught an occipital bun was.

The hyperfocussing of aspies seems something different than that of Neanderthals who were supposed to use it for hunting. It is applied very differently, so it seems very unlikely indeed. Also if it was true, all people with this skull shape should generally be more aspie-like, while i never noticed this with people who have it. I tend to think the opposite accually, if I think in stereotypes of what a typical aspie looks like...

I realize that this is a bit of an asside, but I thought I'd provide a bit of fodder for the Neanderthal Guy if he shows up. I instinctively make eye contact with the Neanderthal face displayed above, but have difficulty even in looking at the modern human for an extended period of time.

First, Aspies do not have bad co-ordination. They have typical primate co-ordination. It is NTs that have evolved superior co-ordination. Why did they do this? Because they started hunting with throwing spears and bows. This requires a good sense of speed and motion and good co-ordination. Because Neanderthals never hunted like this, they never evolved this trait.

It is seen in Europeans sometimes, but mostly in african populations.
And no it is not a sign of superior intelligence. I would rather think the opposite.