{"id":139161,"date":"2022-05-11T06:02:22","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T11:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/surprising-discovery-how-a-gene-mutation-causes-higher-intelligence-in-humans"},"modified":"2022-05-11T06:02:22","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T11:02:22","slug":"surprising-discovery-how-a-gene-mutation-causes-higher-intelligence-in-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/surprising-discovery-how-a-gene-mutation-causes-higher-intelligence-in-humans","title":{"rendered":"Surprising Discovery: How a Gene Mutation Causes Higher Intelligence in Humans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/surprising-discovery-how-a-gene-mutation-causes-higher-intelligence-in-humans.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When genes mutate, it can result in severe diseases of the human nervous system. Neuroscientists at Leipzig University and the University of W\u00fcrzburg have now used fruit flies to demonstrate how, apart from the negative effect, the mutation of a neuronal gene can have a positive effect \u2013 namely higher IQ in humans. They have published their findings in the prestigious journal <em>Brain<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Synapses are the contact points in the brain via which nerve cells \u2018talk\u2019 to one another. Disruptions in this communication lead to nervous system diseases, since altered synaptic proteins, for example, can impair this complex molecular mechanism. This can cause mild symptoms, but also very severe disabilities in those affected.<\/p>\n<p>The interest of the two neurobiologists Professor Tobias Langenhan and Professor Manfred Heckmann, from Leipzig and W\u00fcrzburg respectively, was aroused when they read in a scientific publication about a mutation that damages a synaptic protein. At first, the affected patients attracted scientists\u2019 attention because the mutation caused them to go blind. However, doctors then noticed that the patients were also of above-average intelligence. \u201cIt\u2019s very rare for a mutation to lead to improvement rather than loss of function,\u201d says Langenhan, professor and holder of a chair at the Rudolf Sch\u00f6nheimer Institute of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When genes mutate, it can result in severe diseases of the human nervous system. Neuroscientists at Leipzig University and the University of W\u00fcrzburg have now used fruit flies to demonstrate how, apart from the negative effect, the mutation of a neuronal gene can have a positive effect \u2013 namely higher IQ in humans. They have [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}