Are autistics part Neanderthal?

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Somebody created this theory that autistics are part Neanderthal and this theory makes a lot of sense. What's especially impressive is that this theory was conceived before scientists concluded that non-Africans have Neanderthal DNA so the theory had predictive validity.

I believe that Neanderthals had bigger brains and were smarter than humans however humans had the capacity to communicate and thus COMBINE their intelligence. So while Neanderthal could outsmart humans one on one, humans had more COLLECTIVE intelligence and thus could outsmart Neanderthals group against group.





As a result of their inferior social and linguistic communication skills, Neanderthals were slaughtered by humans but a few Neanderthal genes survived in the human population. Now humans had both their original communication skills, but also the Neanderthal genes enhanced their brain size. So with both human communication skill and overall High IQ inherited from Neanderthals, modern humans were unstoppable and the great leap forward occurred giving rise to art and symbolic thought.




Now a few humans had extra Neanderthal DNA and they were smart enough to be engineers and math/tech types. However in the kids of math/tech types, you sometimes get too much Neanderthal genes and you'd get a brain that wanted to grow as big as a neanderthal's but it couldn't fit into the smaller human skull, so after accelerated brain growth in childhood expanding the skull, the brain begins to shrink. All this does damage to the brain, a condition we call autism today.

I suggest one way to diagnose autism in adults is to check if the brain is too small for the skull.

Last edited by wogaboo on 28 Jan 2012, 11:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

... Odd.

No more so than non-autistics. Nearly everyone who is descended from European stock may have as much as 4% of their genome in common with Neanderthal Man.

If a person's Neanderthal ancestry makes them autistic, then every single European alive today would have autism.

Well perhaps when the level of Neanderthal DNA exceeds a certain threshold you get symptoms we describe as autism

Silly.

Well perhaps you need to research your assumption and get back to us with your results.

Start here: "Neanderthal"

Then here: "Homo Neanderthalensis "

Then here: "All Non-Africans Part Neanderthal, Genetics Confirm"

Those should get you started on a more scientific line of reasoning. Be sure to follow up on any references they may give.

When the brain is too large for the skull then it is not autism, it's a different condition that is fatal. This is BS.

If this hypothesis were true, then no one that was 100% of African descent would have autism. We would probably notice if this was the case.

Are you saying Autistics aren't humans????????????????????????????????????????

Last edited by Joe90 on 28 Jan 2012, 12:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well nobody alive today is 100% African. All humans are mixed to some degree.

This.

I think I'm part alien

Evidence, please?


While that may be your opinion, there seems to be no objective evidence to back it up.

Well we know at least a subset of autistics have abnormal brain growth. The brain grows very large in childhood but then shrinks down to normal size by adulthood. This is in sharp contrast to NTs whose brain size maximizes in adulthood and doesn't really shrink until older age.

http://www.stat.yale.edu/~jtc5/papers/C ... lease.html

Interesting hypothesis ... has it been vetted?