ICREA Research Professor. Evolution, Genetics, Neuroscience, Linguistic Cognition https://www.cedricboeckx.com
Great piece by @ecallaway.bsky.social A “window into the minds of some of Europe’s earliest Homo sapiens” www.nature.com/articles/d41...
40,000-year-old bird carvings provide clues to how ice age humans flourishedNewly discovered figurines point to skills that might have helped shape early humans’ expansion across Europe.www.nature.comInsightful work on archaic hominin introgression using ancestral recombination graphs, by @yulinzhang.bsky.social @aabiddanda.github.io @sarahaj34.bsky.social @codushlaine.bsky.social & Priya Moorjani. Key finding: Ghost ancestry persists in so called Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestry deserts 🧪🧬💀
Recovering signatures of archaic hominin introgression using ancestral recombination graphsAdmixture between modern humans and extinct hominins has shaped the genomes of present-day individuals, but reconstructing this history has been constrained by the scarcity of archaic samples and unad...www.science.orgVery good study from F. Gage’s lab on the impact of #astrocyte metabolism in species-specific neuronal development; possibly key for ‘neoteny’ 🧬🧠🌟 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A Role for Astrocyte Metabolism in Species-Specific Neuronal DevelopmentHuman neurons develop more slowly than non-human primate neurons. This phenomenon, termed neoteny, is thought to contribute to several human-specific features of the brain, including humans' expanded ...www.biorxiv.orgA great new resource for future comparisons across model systems, species, and disease states, on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social: a consensus atlas of human brain development, identifying cell type-specific maturation trajectories across the lifespan 🧪🧬🧠📈 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A consensus atlas of human brain development defines cell type-specific maturation trajectories across the lifespanHuman neurodevelopment is a continuous process that begins prenatally and extends into postnatal life. Current transcriptomic datasets are limited, fragmented across analytical frameworks, precluding ...www.biorxiv.orgTwo very nice companion preprints shedding more light on “neoteny”—the delayed neuronal maturation characterizing human development. Result: lipid homeostasis is a central node controlling the pace of neuronal maturation. one study (Taverna lab) looking at neuron-intrinsic metabolic programs & 🧪🧬🧠
Evolutionary diversification of lipid logistics shapes synaptic maturation in primatesThe prolonged developmental trajectory of the human brain is a hallmark of our evolution; however, the cellular mechanisms underlying this delay remain poorly understood. Changes in lipid composition ...www.biorxiv.orgVery good piece by @tuuliel.bsky.social @nevillesanjana.bsky.social @singht.bsky.social & colleagues: “Current challenges in GWAS integration and fine-mapping for variant interpretation” 🧪🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Current challenges in GWAS integration and fine-mapping for variant interpretationOver the past two decades, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified thousands of trait- and disease-associated loci. However, the mechanistic understanding of these loci remains incomple...www.biorxiv.org