DailyDirt: Messing With Mice Brains

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wed, Mar 4th 2015 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The genes that make humans distinct from other animals are being narrowed down. We have a lot in common with other mammals and especially other primates, but relatively tiny differences in a set of genes could explain how human language and intelligence evolved and developed. Understanding the complexity of human intelligence and genetics will likely take decades or longer -- and we may never fully understand every aspect of consciousness. However, we're making some progress and creating some smarter mice along the way. Check out a few of these experiments.

Injecting human astrocytes (the most abundant cells found in the brain) into a mouse brain actually makes mice measurably smarter. This isn't exactly the beginnings of the rats of NIMH, but the researchers are going to try rats next.... [url]
Activating a certain gene called HARE5 ("human-accelerated regulatory enhancers") leads to the development of bigger brains in humans -- and perhaps other mammals like mice and chimpanzees. A mouse embryo treated with a human HARE5 sequence developed a 12% larger brain than a mouse embryo with a chimpanzee HARE5 gene. [url]
Hundreds of mice have been genetically engineered to express the human version of the FOXP2 gene -- a gene linked to speech and language. The resulting mice were able to learn a maze faster than control mice. And are you pondering what I'm pondering? [url]
The ARHGAP11B gene could be a unique gene for developing modern humans' massive neocortex. Adding this gene in mice gave them larger neocortices and brain folds (mice brains are usually tiny and smooth) -- but the mice weren't necessarily more intelligent. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: animals, arhgap11b gene, astrocytes, brains, dna, evolution, foxp2 gene, genes, genetics, hare5 gene, intelligence, mice, neocortex, nihm

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That One Guy (profile), 4 Mar 2015 @ 5:17pm

Only one thing to say really
Smarter, larger brains, better spacial reasoning skills, more surface area of the brain...

I for one welcome our new rodent overlords.
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Jake, 4 Mar 2015 @ 5:25pm

And for our next trick, catgirls!
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Anonymous Howard (profile), 5 Mar 2015 @ 12:56am

The next goal
The next big thing: injecting HARE5, FOXP2 and ARHGAP11B into politician's brains! Maybe they'll acquire some human-like intellect too!
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wongo, 5 Mar 2015 @ 6:41am

Read the Uplift series by David Brin. Fiction becomes fact...
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Mason Wheeler (profile), 5 Mar 2015 @ 7:33am

The article says the mice grew 12% larger brains, but nothing about them growing larger *skulls*. wouldn't that get a bit problematic pretty quickly?
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CyberKender, 5 Mar 2015 @ 1:11pm

I think so, Brain, but me and Sarah Palin? What will the children look like? Oh, it doesn't matter, they'd be loved!
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