Only modern man is able to think abstractly.
A group of experts from around the world during the study of the genomes of modern humans, Neanderthals and their common distant ancestors and relatives, came to the conclusion that only modern humans have genes responsible for creativity. No other ancestor of Homo sapiens or in a parallel branch of development of these genes recorded. The study results were published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
It is still unclear whence modern humans evolved the ability to create. Moreover, the creative skills appeared in humans almost instantly and universally, and coincided in time with the period of migration of sapiens from Africa to other continents. At the same time, no other primates, human ancestors and representatives of parallel lines were found to have such development of creative skills.
Only modern humans are capable of thinking abstractly and have a developed self-consciousness, which lead, of course, to the emergence of developed language and the art of storytelling. However, which gеnes are responsible for these abilities is not known.
To find and discover the data they are looking for, geneticists have identified nearly a thousand genes responsible for memory and learning abilities. Some of these genes, responsible for the emergence of social ties and the ability to communicate with their peers, appeared in all primates about forty million years ago. The next group of genes, responsible for self-control and the ability to work in a group, appeared only thirty-eight million years later. Finally, the genes responsible for self-awareness and the ability to create appeared in our immediate ancestors only a hundred thousand years ago.
The third group, consisting of less than three hundred genes, is presently found only in Homo sapiens. It is these genes that enable us to create, ensure our self-awareness and ability to live in society. Scientists believe that the possession of these genes was one of the reasons why we beat the Neanderthals and remained the only human species on the planet.
