Professor Seth Grant, of the University of Edinburgh, led research in Nature Neuroscience that discovered how God made us smart.
The researchers suggest that a simple invertebrate animal living in the sea 500 million years ago experienced a ‘genetic accident’, which resulted in extra copies of these genes being made.
The research team studied the mental abilities of mice and humans, using comparative tasks that involved identifying objects on touch-screen computers. Researchers then combined results of these behavioral tests with information from the genetic codes They found that higher mental functions in humans and mice were controlled by the same genes.
“Our work shows that the price of higher intelligence and more complex behaviours is more mental illness,” said Professor Grant.