Towards Reproducing the Neanderthal Brain

It's a genetics department research job at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig.

The leader of this study, Swedish Professor Svante Paabo, says that missing Neanderthals have been the most modern - day species and the best example of comparison.

In the following months, the work will focus on small tissue fibers known as brain organoids, which will be increased by human cells that have been built to uphold Neanderthal versions of certain genes.

Organoids, in their initial stages, are incapable of thinking or feeling and are considered copies of the basic structures of a mature brain. Yes, using these, the group of German scholars hopes to first explain the biological differences between the brain of today's human and the Neanderthal.

“We seek to verify whether we can find fundamental differences in the function of nerve cells, which can shed light on why people are so special”, Paabo says.

The code for the Neanderthal genome being used in this experiment, German scientists have received it from a 2010 discovery by four female skeletons found in Europe, which, according to carbon tests, result in living at least 70 thousand years ago.

In previous comparison studies of this code, researchers have determined that all non - Africans today own 14 percent of Neanderthal DNA.