title: Metabolic changes in schizophrenia and human brain evolution.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite decades of research, the molecular changes responsible for the evolution of human cognitive abilities remain unknown. Comparative evolutionary studies provide detailed information about DNA sequence and mRNA expression differences between humans and other primates but, in the absence of other information, it has proved very difficult to identify molecular pathways relevant to human cognition.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Here, we compare changes in gene expression and metabolite concentrations in the human brain and compare them to the changes seen in a disorder known to affect human cognitive abilities, schizophrenia. We find that both genes and metabolites relating to energy metabolism and energy-expensive brain functions are altered in schizophrenia and, at the same time, appear to have changed rapidly during recent human evolution, probably as a result of positive selection.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings, along with several previous studies, suggest that the evolution of human cognitive abilities was accompanied by adaptive changes in brain metabolism, potentially pushing the human brain to the limit of its metabolic capabilities.
authors.affiliation: Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yue Yang Road, Shanghai, 200031, PR China. khaitovich@eva.mpg.de
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Khaitovich
authors.forename: Helen E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Lockstone
authors.forename: Matthew T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Wayland
authors.forename: Tsz M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Tsang
authors.forename: Samantha D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Jayatilaka
authors.forename: Arfu J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Somel
authors.forename: Laura W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Holmes
authors.forename: Svante
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pääbo
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bahn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004734:Energy Metabolism / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger