The cognitive ability of extinct hominins: bringing down the hierarchy using genomic evidences.

Background The availability of the full genomes of Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis, and Denisovans, as well as modern bioinformatic tools, are opening new possibilities for the understanding of the differences and similarities present in these taxa. Methods We searched for cognitive genes, examined their status in the genomes of these three entities. All substitutions present among them were retrieved. Results We found 93 nonsynonymous substitutions in 51 cognitive genes, in which the derived allele was present in archaic and modern humans and the ancestral allele in other nonhuman primates. Conclusions The general picture obtained is of similarity in cognitive genes between extinct and extant humans. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 25:702-705, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.