Depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder linked with ancient viral DNA in our genome – new research
We found that that the expression of four Hervs was linked with genetic susceptibility to major psychiatric disorders. The expression of two of these Hervs was associated with schizophrenia, one Herv with both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and one with depression. These results suggest that Hervs may be playing a more important role in the brain than initially thought.
Burroughs wrote that language was a virus that infected an ape. What if a virus gave us the ability to speak?