Neanderthals had a hard time. Early humans played a role in their extinction, but the story didn’t end there. Later humans doubled down on using their name as the definition of “stupid” in the dictionary.
The cognitive abilities of Neanderthals
Were they truly unintelligent, club-wielding, outclassed by far more attractive, intelligent and charming Homo sapiens? Or could it just be human propaganda?
What we know for sure is that the N. were among our closest relatives. The first fossils of N. we have date back to around 430,000 years ago. These hominids lived alongside early Homo sapiens until about 40,000 years ago, when they disappeared from the fossil record. Early humans have been blamed for their extinction, although it is unclear whether this occurred through violence or sex.
Recent advances in paleoanthropology have given us a closer look at the likely structure of the N brain. We know that the brain was roughly the same size or larger than the human brain, but with a different shape. A study of 32 modern humans and 13 N. skulls suggests they had larger areas of the brain dedicated to vision.
The N. also had larger eyes than modern humans. Their larger bodies also required more brain space to control movement. The authors of this study suggested that this left less cognitive burden to perform complex social processing. This may have meant they were less capable of forming strong social groups.
Another analysis argues that much of the accepted lore about knuckle-dragging Neanderthals stems specifically from this type of comparison, which they say unfairly compares Neanderthals to modern humans, rather than to other early Homo sapiens. It’s like saying that 18th century humans were unintelligent idiots because of their inability to record TikToks.
An analysis that made the comparison between N. and early Homo sapiens more fair developed 3D reconstructions of the brains of both hominids. The models revealed smaller cerebellums in Neanderthal brains, which may have reduced their cognitive and social function.
These studies draw inferences about Neanderthal brains from fossil bone structures, rather than using direct intuition. That’s because we don’t have a Neanderthal brain lying around to slap on a table and start dissecting. This hasn’t stopped biologists from being creative in their efforts to reconstruct the minds of humans Neanderthal. The discovery of a sample of Neanderthal DNA in a cave in Germany made things easier.
A recent study published in Science extracted a Neanderthal gene from ancient DNA samples and then inserted it into the brains of ferrets and mice, as well as “mini-brain” organoids made from human stem cells. In brains seeded with Neanderthal DNA, new brain cells formed more slowly during development, suggesting they may have had a lower cognitive peak than Homo sapiens.
The authors of the latter paper said that even their innovative approach only hinted at the reduced cognitive function of Neanderthals. While they were certainly outclassed by early humans, we still lack the scientific basis to support many decades of roasting Neanderthal intellect in popular culture.
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