Bruce Lahn Quotes

We don't know what these new variants do. But they might confer a selective advantage by improving cognitive abilities. This needs to be confirmed.

- Bruce Lahn

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Variants | Confer | Selective | Advantage | Improving |

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If we look at multiple genes, the ethnic variations--such as the ones we found--are likely to be counterbalanced by other differences. It just happens that we looked at two genes for which the variants favored by selection have a higher frequency in some populations, such as Europeans. It might be that for the next two brain size genes we find, the variants favored by selection will have a higher frequency in Asians or Africans. - Bruce Lahn

My concern is that this is going to become justification for prejudices against certain groups. - Bruce Lahn

The jury is still out on what this means because we aren't entirely sure what these genes do. It's possible they just control size and shape of the brain, rather than cognition. But the data is pretty compelling that the brain is evolving. - Bruce Lahn