this is very interesting. while intelligence did seem to be a good hypothesis, it's clearly not that simple. the observations about the timings of the the sweeps still holds, and so perhaps personality traits would be a good place to look next.

Interesting, but isn't their conclusion stated incorrectly? They seem to be reporting no association between the recent adaptive evolution of ASPM or Microcephalin and variation in IQ.

Since, presumably, all the people in their study were alive, the study necessarily omits humans from earlier stages in evolution. In other words, they have published a study that is, in and of itself, worthless except to highlight the difficulty of proving adaptive evolution of genes in studies like theirs!

well, they say this "Here, we report a large-scale association study between the adaptive alleles of these genes and normal variation in several measures of IQ" so I think you're on the same page as them.

the key thing is that there's a segregating allele that is under selection now. assuming the selection pressure on the gene over evolutionary history is the same as the pressure on it now, you should be able to correlate the genotype with current variation in the relevant phenotype. from this, it doesn't appear that IQ is the relevant phenotype.

Maybe they do something else, like help to insulate synapses in cooler environments...who knows. The missing link IQ hypothesis so many on this board became aroused by seems to have popped...but if the genes did not do something they would not be selected for so strongly. It looks like IQ is not it.

while intelligence did seem to be a good hypothesis, it's clearly not that simple.

As I pointed out at Dienekes, the genes do appear to be related to some lower order cognitive abilities in another study. Does this study speak to that?

The socalled "new variant" of ASPM is mostly found in the people of the middle east and people living in the strong vegetative jungle of Papua new guinea. The gene might be new; but it occured in an maybe "obsolete gene" from an evolutionary perspective. The gene ASMP has been under selection in the linages leading to primates and humans. It has even been under selection in dogs, rabbits and other lower mammals. One could say that you cant improve a digital clock by improving a gear. If the mutation is so succesful in some people only, it probabely reflects a certain genetic background. Roughly ne might could say that in order to ASMP to work in a given organism, the organism would be have to work by the same principals for instant seen in primates. This might explain why the people of the middle east have adapted and selected this variant of ASMP. According to Rosenbergs findings on STR/short tandem repeat evolution(by far the most comprehensive form of genetic evoultion)the chinese and Japenese are the most "evolved of humans" with the greatest genetic distance to chimps and other mammals. The people with the next greatest human/chimp divergence is the europeans. The pakistanies (who especially show a strong sign of selection of the new variant of ASMP)and the people of Central Africa come in as showing the least divergence from chimps. Recently findings have showned that also the people of western Europe dont show sign of any selection of the ASMP variant. A likely pattern is, that this gene is new ASPvariant is selected in organisms not as diverged as the europeans or east asians. Contemporary studies of microsatellite evolution also show that human of the middle east descend from africans, and europeans descend from the people of the middle east. The east asian emerged the latest migrating from europe. The people of the middle east are at the very bootom of human evlotuon just above the people of Africa. The reason why the ASMP variant is not as widespread in some parts of Africa is because it didnt arose in Africa. It sems very possible that the ASMP variant was brought to Tanzania by arabs. From then on it drove to a frequency above that seen in Japanese and northerne Chinese in a very short span of time. It reflects how adaptable this new variant of ASMP is in an african population.
A gene like NRG1 or Gsh2 are much more new from an evolutionary perspective and are much more probably to be the genes associated with the great leap in human brain physiology and intelligence/comprehension thus defining modern human and its achievements.
The articles which "shows" that the people with the new variant of ASMP are more likely to speak non -tongue language are simply very unrealistic. One could just aswell say that people with the ASMP variant are more prone to. Just pinpointing a similarty among people of the middle east, and then say that ASMP is the cause is a very "long shot" which is simply ridiculous. The gene probabely involved in speech is the FOX2P gene, which begone mutating only in the late linage of homo sapiens unlike the ASMP.
In conlusion east asian and europeans have most likely evolved through other and probabely newer genetic mechanisms and genes.

Stefan Eriksen

The socalled "new variant" of ASPM is mostly found in the people of the middle east and people living in the strong vegetative jungle of Papua new guinea. The gene might be new; but it occured in an maybe "obsolete gene" from an evolutionary perspective. The gene ASMP has been under selection in the linages leading to primates and humans. It has even been under selection in dogs, rabbits and other lower mammals. One could say that you cant improve a digital clock by improving a gear. If the mutation is so succesful in some people only, it probabely reflects a certain genetic background. Roughly one might say that in order for the new variant of ASMP to work in a given organism, the organism would be have to work by the same principals for instant seen in primates. This might explain why the people of the middle east have adapted and selected this variant of ASMP. According to Rosenbergs findings on STR/short tandem repeat evolution(by far the most comprehensive form of genetic evoultion)the chinese and Japenese are the most "evolved of humans" with the greatest genetic distance to chimps and other mammals. The people with the next greatest human/chimp divergence is the europeans. The pakistanies (who especially show a strong sign of selection of the new variant of ASMP)and the people of Central Africa come in as showing the least divergence from chimps. Recently findings have showned that also the people of western Europe dont show sign of any selection of the ASMP variant. A likely pattern is, that this gene is new ASMP variant is selected in organisms not as diverged as the europeans or east asians. Contemporary studies of microsatellite evolution also show that human of the middle east descend from africans, and europeans descend from the people of the middle east. The east asian emerged the latest migrating from europe. The people of the middle east are at the very bootom of human evlotuon just above the people of Africa. The reason why the ASMP variant is not as widespread in some parts of Africa is because it didnt arose in Africa. It sems very possible that the ASMP variant was brought to Tanzania by arabs. From then on it drove to a frequency above that seen in Japanese and northerne Chinese in a very short span of time. It reflects how adaptable this new variant of ASMP is in an african population.
A gene like NRG1 or Gsh2 are much more new from an evolutionary perspective and are much more probably to be the genes associated with the great leap in human brain physiology and intelligence/comprehension thus defining modern human and its achievements.
The articles which "shows" that the people with the new variant of ASMP are more likely to speak non -tongue language are simply very unrealistic. One could just as well say that people with the ASMP variant are more prone to whatever. Just pinpointing a similarty among people of the middle east, and then say that ASMP is the cause is a very "long shot" which is simply ridiculous. The gene probabely involved in speech is the FOX2P gene, which begone mutating only in the late linage of homo sapiens unlike the ASMP.
In conlusion east asian and europeans have most likely evolved through other and probabely newer genetic mechanisms and genes.

Stefan Eriksen