24 ms·

what are you thinking of specifically? I mean genetically and functionally we are incredibly similar as mammals. Most poisons/etc. work the same for example.

by rf15 8y ago

zmmmmm 8y ago
I'm completely speculating, but I think when your lifespan is only 2 years anyway, you have almost no selective pressure for things like the kinds of diseases of aging that humans are now battling. So there are all kinds of things like cancer and dementia that mice's systems are much more naive to, and hence they are tend to get sick from "simple", easily treatable versions of these diseases. Meanwhile humans have evolved strong defenses for all the common / simple causes and are trying to fix the "hard" versions of all these things.
- ethbro 8y ago
  It's partly because of a more complex version of that, partly because of evolutionary drift. Mammals can still be incredibly distinct when you get down to specific biological pathway behavior. Or they can be exactly the same. Depends on how the mutation dice came up. For example, the different ways various mammal species metabolize theobromine [1] (aka, the "dangerous" thing in chocolate). Dogs and humans are similarly allergic, but because we metabolize it differently it's eliminated from our bodies much more quickly, which keeps it from building up to dangerous levels. As my dad (vet / path / drug development) would say, 'Mother Nature is lazy before anything else. She'd rather repurpose an already evolved system than create something new in almost every circumstance.' Multiply that by ~95 million years (last common dog-human ancestor), and you get a lot of quirky genetic code debt. ;) [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/6144479/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/6144479/
- mannykannot 8y ago
  There's some evolutionary pressure in the form the selective breeding of animal models of human disease; it just has not been very successful for Alzheimer's. I guess you have to start with what nature gives.
dr_dshiv 8y ago
I saw a lecture recently that sought to compare the difference between mice neurons and human neurons. They were surprised to find that the capacitance of the neural membranes was substantially different. They showed that populations of human neurons we're capable of entraining to frequencies exceeding 1000hz, whereas mouse neural populations capped out below 300hz. I apologize I don't remember the researchers name, but it was at a Human Brain Project conference in Amsterdam.
trasz 8y ago
Out of curiosity, is that property specific to mice, or are most small mammals similar in that regard, and we use mice instead of, say, cats, just because they are more convenient?

what are you thinking of specifically? I mean genetically and functionally we are incredibly similar as mammals. Most poisons/etc. work the same for example.

by rf15 8y ago

what are you thinking of specifically? I mean genetically and functionally we are incredibly similar as mammals. Most poisons/etc. work the same for example.

zmmmmm 8y ago

I'm completely speculating, but I think when your lifespan is only 2 years anyway, you have almost no selective pressure for things like the kinds of diseases of aging that humans are now battling. So there are all kinds of things like cancer and dementia that mice's systems are much more naive to, and hence they are tend to get sick from "simple", easily treatable versions of these diseases. Meanwhile humans have evolved strong defenses for all the common / simple causes and are trying to fix the "hard" versions of all these things.

ethbro 8y ago
It's partly because of a more complex version of that, partly because of evolutionary drift. Mammals can still be incredibly distinct when you get down to specific biological pathway behavior. Or they can be exactly the same. Depends on how the mutation dice came up. For example, the different ways various mammal species metabolize theobromine [1] (aka, the "dangerous" thing in chocolate). Dogs and humans are similarly allergic, but because we metabolize it differently it's eliminated from our bodies much more quickly, which keeps it from building up to dangerous levels. As my dad (vet / path / drug development) would say, 'Mother Nature is lazy before anything else. She'd rather repurpose an already evolved system than create something new in almost every circumstance.' Multiply that by ~95 million years (last common dog-human ancestor), and you get a lot of quirky genetic code debt. ;) [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/6144479/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/6144479/
mannykannot 8y ago
There's some evolutionary pressure in the form the selective breeding of animal models of human disease; it just has not been very successful for Alzheimer's. I guess you have to start with what nature gives.

dr_dshiv 8y ago

I saw a lecture recently that sought to compare the difference between mice neurons and human neurons. They were surprised to find that the capacitance of the neural membranes was substantially different. They showed that populations of human neurons we're capable of entraining to frequencies exceeding 1000hz, whereas mouse neural populations capped out below 300hz. I apologize I don't remember the researchers name, but it was at a Human Brain Project conference in Amsterdam.

trasz 8y ago

Out of curiosity, is that property specific to mice, or are most small mammals similar in that regard, and we use mice instead of, say, cats, just because they are more convenient?