...Our ancestors millions of years ago were infected with a virus. Eventually it became lodged in our genome. At some point, a mutation moved the virus enhancer next to the PRODH gene. Further mutations allowed it to helped boost the gene’s activity in certain areas of the brain, such as the hippocampus.
The scientists can’t say how this change altered the human brain, but given what we know about brain disorders linked to the PRODH gene, it could have been important.
It’s always important approach studies on our inner viruses with some skepticism. Making a compelling case that a short stretch of DNA has an important function takes not just one experiment, but a whole series of them. And even if this enhancer does prove to have been one important step in the evolution of the human brain, our brains are also the result of many other mutations of a far more conventional sort.
Still, the intriguing possibility remains. Perhaps our minds are partly the way they are today thanks to an infection our ancestors got a few millions of years ago...
@ How Our Minds Went Viral – Phenomena: The Loom:
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