Abstract
Background and aim: Human evolution resulted from changes in our biology, behaviour, and culture. One source of these changes has been hypothesised to be our self-domestication (that is, the development in humans of features commonly found in domesticated strains of mammals, seemingly as a result of selection for reduced aggression). Signals of domestication, notably brain size reduction, have increased in recent times.
Methods: In this paper, we compare whole-genome data between the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age individuals and modern Europeans.
Results: We show that genes associated with mammal domestication and with neural crest development and function are significantly differently enriched in nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms between these two groups.
Conclusion: We hypothesise that these changes might account for the increased features of self-domestication in modern humans and, ultimately, for subtle recent changes in human cognition and behaviour, including language.
Keywords: Late Neolithic/Bronze Age; Self-domestication; language change; nonsynonymous SNPs.
Benítez-Burraco, Antonio