Perhaps it made them more empathetic? When I visited the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain, they took us out to the Atapuerca excavation site and told

Perhaps it made them more empathetic? When I visited the Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain, they took us out to the Atapuerca excavation site and told us they’d found evidence of a Neanderthal with a life-threatening tooth abscess. Apparently he would have been in incredible pain and his tribe(?) mates managed to keep him alive by pre-chewing his food for him. They also found evidence of disabled Neanderthals who were helped/kept alive by the group but I can’t recall the specifics of the disability to remember whether any pain may have been involved. I would think pro-social behaviors like that have a serious evolutionary advantage.