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Kitchen Table Kibitzing 12/16/23: Early riser? It may be that Neanderthal blood [1]

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Date: 2023-12-16  

It took several decades and observations of multiple co-habitants for me to finally determine this, but after years I think I can safely say I am a “morning person.” This is less of a reflection on my own self-concept, and more of a comparative analysis between myself and others based on their morning behaviors, but the distinction at long last seems stark enough to allow me to reach that conclusion.

And as reported by Adela Suliman, writing for the Washington Post, that may be attributable to Neanderthal genes.

A study published this week in Genome Biology and Evolution has found that Neanderthal DNA remains in some present-day humans and may determine whether someone is naturally an early riser.

It seems that upon migrating north out of Africa our direct ancestors, collectively categorized as homo sapiens, engaged in quite a bit of prehistoric shenanigans with the native Neanderthal and Denisovans, while simultaneously encountering variations in cycles of lightness and darkness their newfound soulmates had already adapted to. Interbreeding naturally resulted in their offspring retaining some of these adaptive traits. Light and dark cycles are different in Europe than they are in Africa, hence the difference in the way the species evolved to respond to such cycles.

For her article Suliman corresponded with Tony Capra, an ”associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics” from the University of California, San Francisco.

“In higher latitudes there is more seasonal variation in light/dark cycles over the course of the year than in more equatorial latitudes,” Capra wrote. It was “not immediately clear why increased morningness would be beneficial at higher latitudes,” though the study found that in present-day humans, “behavioral morningness” is linked to “a quickened pace of the circadian gene network,” which could be an advantage.

As Suliman reports, researchers have been able to identify at least 246 genes and “hundreds” of genetic variants that relate to our internal “circadian rhythms,” that is, the biological adaptation of a species towards environmental “light” and “dark” periods. Suliman reports on a study conducted of several hundred thousand British citizens (whose genetic and medical data is apparently stored in something called a “Biobank”— who knew?) that allowed them to correlate these genetic variants with “morningness,” or better adaptability to changing light cycles.

As Suliman notes, “Using artificial intelligence to analyze the genetic variants, they found it was possible that some humans could have obtained circadian variants from Neanderthals.”

Seize the day, you slackers!

Biologists believe that such an adaptive “advantage” (i.e., being more responsive to light cycles, presumably in order to obtain food and basically just be alert to potential threats or opportunities) would have been genetically retained. As Suliman notes, however, they acknowledge that there is a complexity to being a “morning person” that includes the influence of “environmental and cultural” factors. So the possibility of a Neanderthal link is just one of several factors that may determine whether you leap out of bed primed for the day’s activities or whether you encounter your mornings with a more truculent. gradually dissipating dread.

As Suliman reports:

Capra clarified that “being a morning person is a very complex trait,” and hundreds of different genes as well as environmental and culture factors “strongly influence” it. “There are plenty of morning people who don’t have any of these Neanderthal variants!”

So the next time you “non-morning” people feel that exasperation that comes with the knowledge that your co-habitant is markedly (and annoyingly) more lively and chipper than you are at 6 am. feel free to blame it on the Neanderthals. You may be right or wrong about this, but at that hour any rational reason is probably good enough, right?

Incidentally I think I may have found the perfect illustration of how a “morning person’s” behavior seems to a non-morning person. You have to listen to the whole thing to fully appreciate the nuances, though:

I’ll be at a holiday party tonight but will try to “patch in” if possible.

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