Ancient human sex changed how some people feel pain

A gene variant that can be traced all the way back to Neanderthals, but is still present in about 0.4 percent of modern humans in Britain, may make pain feel even sharper. Out of the 362,944 British citizens in the study, those who had that Neanderthal-derived gene were 7 percent more likely to report at least one pain symptom, compared to those who didn't have the gene. 

The authors suggest that translates to feeling the pain typical of someone 8.5 years their senior. Age was correlated with more experiences of pain in the study population. 

Hugo Zeberg is the study's first author and a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and The Karolinska Institutet. He tells Inverse that the gene isn't terribly common in Europe –only one percent of Europeans likely have it. Zeberg and his team reached that conclusion by using data collected by the UK Biobank study.

https://www.inverse.com/science/neanderthals-pain-tolerance-in-modern-humans




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