Neanderthal allele associated with lower threshold to pain

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Science Daily: Neanderthals may have had a lower threshold for pain

"Pain is mediated through specialized nerve cells that are activated when potentially harmful things affect various parts of our bodies. These nerve cells have a special ion channel that has a key role in starting the electrical impulse that signals pain and is sent to the brain. According to a new study, people who inherited the Neanderthal variant of this ion channel experience more pain.

As several Neanderthal genomes of high quality are now available researchers can identify genetic changes that were present in many or all Neanderthals, investigate their physiological effects and look into their consequences when they occur in people today. Looking into one gene that carries such changes, Hugo Zeberg, Svante Pääbo and colleagues found that some people, especially from central and south America but also in Europe, have inherited a Neanderthal variant of a gene that encodes an ion channel that initiates the sensation of pain.
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Here is the paper: A Neanderthal Sodium Channel Increases Pain Sensitivity in Present-Day Humans

The SNPs are rs12478318 (G = Neanderthal variant), rs4369876 (A) and rs3750904 (C).
 
They where too emotional :) Pain and emotion are very closely tied, for example you can calm emotional pain from social exclusion with tylenol. Bad for them, that they where such snowflakes, this will be one of the reasons why they died out.
 

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