This is one of those evil forbidden thoughts that make ppl throw rock/attack you but for quite awhile now Ive suspected androgen signalling pathways in the brain mediate certain aspects of intelligence. We know for example abnormalities in genes for iron storage exist as a reaction to agricultural diets which were iron deficient. We also know, for example, HPA axis and adrenal gland hormone synthesis may be privy to genetic selection to favor hyperresponsive action in stressful environments. The consequences of these genes lead to conditions such as depression, PTSD, or endocrine/metabolic disorders. I hypothesize that human intelligence, brilliance, particularly math/scientific is likely capitalizing an androgen-medicated signalling pathway in the brain which is genetically determined. I suspect intelligent people have brains which are not only more sensitive to androgen, but this is also somewhat the etiology of autism/mental retardation/schizophrenia being more common in males. We mealy-mouthed avoid the endocrine nature of the mind when we say males are less stable as their intelligences follow a U shape relative to that of females, who are spared profound retardation just as they are exempted from extreme brilliance. The question is why this would be so? What is it about males relative to females that allows for prolific scientific/mathematic brilliance while also predisposing to debilitating mental retardation? I suspect that the genetics of intelligence are rather like the genetics for other traits such as obesity - multiple and varied in detail but commonly deferring back to common pathways and endocrine loops. There are thousands of genes which predispose to metabolic atypicalities but all involve insulin, fat cells, and obesity/diabetes being symptoms. Similarly I think androgen and brain development is implicated in a myriad of genetic traits otherwise conducive to scientific and mathematical brilliance. If females should have these genes they are more intelligent of course, but it would require sensitization to androgen to facilitate really extreme genius. A hypothetical mechanism would be androgen receptors on regions of brain implicated in spatial reasoning, abstract thinking, memory; if androgen exposure occurs would proliferate development of these regions and cause exaggerated neuron development of the brain at these sites. The child with these genes requires prenatal androgen sensitization to facilitate his full brilliance. This may be the genetic origin of intelligence as we know it, which we know is highly heritable and only slightly amenable to environment (as in deprivation stunts intelligence but otherwise not much of an impact). This would also explain why autism strikes boys with evidence of genetic intelligence/giftedness (and social deficits are common in mathematic/scientifically gifted men). The person with genes for enhanced brain development is most sensitive to disease. Lets hypothesize for a moment human intelligence + androgen in the brain functions like insulin in the development of the body - to encourage growth and replication of neurons, to create connections between them. The genetics for both mental giftedness and autism would be triggered by androgen. If environment and nutrition is favorable, the androgen sensitivity/neuron plasticity cascade leads to a 150+ IQ and scientific / mathematic brilliance. But lets assume environment is not favorable an the maternal diet is deficient. In this case androgen sensitivity of brain/neuron hyperplasticity would deplete necessary nutritional cofactors and mental retardation/autism develops by a hyperactive growth without sufficient nutrition to support it; the result is a malformed brain and mental handicaps/deficits. The autistic brain might be like a red blood cell deficient of b12 or folate... large, useless, nonfunctional. A sign this might be occurring is the nature of autistic retardation. Though profoundly disabled and low IQ, they are very unusually skilled in certain areas such as memory or systems structure/organizing things. This suggests the brain neuron growth might have been hyperdeveloped in these skills, and this may have triggered the general liability of mental handicap for the totality of brain. Now, if the maternal nutrition was good? Perhaps the child would have been a 160 iq genius with very mild social deficits. I realized today the reason we will never crack the autism puzzle is because surely it is true doing so will uncover the following as true: 1) Intelligence is biological, heritable, and totally unequal between individuals, families, and ethnicity. 2) Many pathways for the development of conventional intelligence are unequal between men and women because they are androgen mediated 3) The common causes of autism are related to the enhanced brain development triggered by high androgen exposure, which might have a way of robbing the rest of the brain of sufficient nutritional cofactors. The boy is born retarded staring at a doorhinge organizing things, small parts of his brain working rather well in context of an overall debilitating handicap. 4) Evidence to support this is found in reproductive endocrinology. Females who are starved/paleo dieters have estrogen deficiency which biases her to birth females. Low estrogen favors conception with X sperm. This suggest low nutrition pregnancy (marked by low estrogen) is less adverse if the fetus is female. Perhaps inequities of the nervous system development is the reason why. 5) I suspect the real reason we have an autism epidemic - usually striking intelligent asian/white individuals from techy backgrounds - is because people are eating nutrient depleted shit which basically acts as nervous system starvation when when carrying a fetus with genes for androgen-signalling mediated CNS hyperplasticity. At the site of the fetal brain there is a deficiency of nturients and this bizarre form of techy retardation occurs in epidemic levels. 6) Females can develop these autistic disorders, if they carry the genes for androgen mediated neuronal hyperplasia/development, but they would require exposure to higher levels of androgen to trigger it. Indeed, most autistic females are exposed to high levels of androgens prenatally. As well it is good to note most intelligent females are less feminine polarized relative to less intelligent ones. This suggests either exposure to higher androgens (thus triggering intelligence) or androgen hypersensitivity in the brain. 7) Androgen is not sufficient, just necessary to trigger it. The genes for intelligence are likely almost always involving supersensitivity in brain to androgen or other androgen mediated events, and this is how these same genes might also cause mental disorders, SCZ, handicaps and autism.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 07:42:48 +0000