title: The cognitive ability of extinct hominins: bringing down the hierarchy using genomic evidences.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The availability of the full genomes of Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis, and Denisovans, as well as modern bioinformatic tools, are opening new possibilities for the understanding of the differences and similarities present in these taxa.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched for cognitive genes, examined their status in the genomes of these three entities. All substitutions present among them were retrieved.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found 93 nonsynonymous substitutions in 51 cognitive genes, in which the derived allele was present in archaic and modern humans and the ancestral allele in other nonhuman primates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The general picture obtained is of similarity in cognitive genes between extinct and extant humans.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Vanessa R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Paixão-Côrtes
authors.forename: Lucas Henriques
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Viscardi
authors.forename: Francisco Mauro
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Salzano
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cátira Bortolini
authors.forename: Tábita
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hünemeier
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003071:Cognition; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D015894:Genome, Human; D015186:Hominidae / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D059125:Neanderthals / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA