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Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) do not see objects the way humans do -- using configural shape perception -- and that could be dangerous in real-world artificial intelligence (Al) applications, say researchers. DCNNs are the type most commonly used to identify patterns in images and video. "Our results explain why deep AI models fail under certain conditions and point to the need to consider tasks beyond object recognition in order to understand visual processing in the brain," said researcher <keyword id="15021557" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="james-elder" source="Orion">James Elder</keyword> from <keyword id="196997" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="york-university" source="Orion">York University</keyword> in Toronto. "These deep models tend to take 'shortcuts' when solving complex recognition tasks. While these shortcuts may work in many cases, they can be dangerous in some of the real-world AI applications we are currently working on with our industry and government partners," <keyword id="6470117" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="elder" source="Orion">Elder</keyword> added. For the study, published in the journal <keyword id="12161883" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="iscience" source="Orion">iScience</keyword>, the team employed novel visual stimuli called "<keyword id="15021558" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="frankensteins" source="Orion">Frankensteins</keyword>" to explore how the human brain and DCNNs process holistic, configural object properties. "Frankensteins are simply objects that have been taken apart and put back together the wrong way around. As a result, they have all the right local features, but in the wrong places," Elder said. The investigators found that while the human visual system is confused by Frankensteins, DCNNs are not -- revealing an insensitivity to configural object properties. According to the researchers, modifications to training and architecture aimed at making networks more brain-like did not lead to configural processing, and none of the networks were able to predict trial-by-trial human object judgements accurately. "We speculate that to match human configural sensitivity, networks must be trained to solve a broader range of object tasks beyond category recognition," Elder noted. SEE ALSO : <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/healthy-lifestyle-may-reduce-dementia-risk-in-diabetic-patients/articleshow/94293286.cms">Healthy lifestyle may reduce dementia risk in diabetic patients</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/sensex-gains-343-points-nifty-up-106-points-mm-indusind-top-gainers/articleshow/94293184.cms">Sensex gains 343 points, Nifty up 106 points – M&amp;M, IndusInd top gainers</a>

Even smartest AI models don't match human visual processing: Study

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Neanderthal genes could be to blame for severe cases of COVID-19, The Wall Street Journal reported.</li><li>Scientists in Italy found people with Neanderthal gene variants were more likely to be hospitalized.</li></ul>Researchers in Italy say their study of people infected with COVID-19 shows that those with certain genetic variations attributable to Neanderthal ancestry were far more likely to experience severe symptoms requiring hospitalization, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/health/wellness/neanderthal-genes-are-linked-to-severe-covid-risk-d992ccad">reported Sunday</a>.Writing in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(23)01706-6">iScience</a>, the researchers, associated with the nonprofit Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, reported that they examined the DNA of nearly 1,200 volunteers in the Bergamo province, which was especially hard hit in the early days of the pandemic. What they found is that "Neanderthal haplotype," a set of genetic variants associated with the human ancestor, is "the major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19."In particular, they found that people with the Neanderthal haplotype were twice as likely to develop severe pneumonia, the Journal reported, and three times as likely to end up on a ventilator in an intensive-care unit.The link between health and Neanderthal DNA has been suggested by other studies. A study published in June by the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-interbreeding-between-humans-and-neanderthals-affects-our-health-today-2023-6">indicated a link</a> between Neanderthal DNA and a genetic disorder known as Dupuytren's disease. And in March, a study published in Nature also found a connection between Neanderthal ancestry and an increased risk of an extreme immune response, or cytokine storm, from contracting COVID-19.Have a news tip? Email this reporter: <a href="mailto:cdavis@insider.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cdavis@insider.com</a>

Did you have a severe case of COVID-19? Research suggests that Neanderthal genes could be to blame

As millions suffer from fatigue and other other symptoms of <keyword id="9814327" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="long-covid" source="Orion">long Covid</keyword>, researchers have presented new evidence of triggers for fatigue following the SARS-COV-2 infection. The team from <keyword id="197550" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="university-of-vienna" source="Orion">University of Vienna</keyword> and the <keyword id="746390" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="medical-university-of-vienna" source="Orion">Medical University of Vienna</keyword>, led by chemist Christopher Gerner, showed that an exaggerated anti-inflammatory response is likely to be responsible for long <keyword id="8764262" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="covid" source="Orion">Covid</keyword> syndrome. Although auto-immunity was previously suspected as the main cause of long Covid, there is no evidence of accompanying inflammatory processes in the long Covid syndrome patients. According to the new study published in iScience, not the excessive inflammatory reaction but anti-inflammatory substances as the triggers for the long Covid syndrome. Contrary to previous expectations, the researchers were able to find several anti-inflammatory proteins, lipids and metabolites in long Covid patients, which on the one hand could contribute to the most important long Covid syndrome symptoms, and, on the other hand, point to the formation of alternatively polarised macrophages as the cause. In the course of a viral infection, there is normally a very strong activation of the immune system. But in virtually all of the long Covid patients studied, corresponding markers such as cytokines, acute phase proteins and eicosanoids, which indicate inflammation, were in fact hardly detectable. "All important potential markers for acute inflammatory processes were below the levels of healthy donors or not detectable at all in LCS patients," said Gerner. Surprisingly, the differences were more pronounced in long Covid patients compared to asymptomatic patients recovering from Covid disease than to healthy controls. "This finding shows that there was indeed some residual inflammatory response detectable in asymptomatic recovered patients, whereas long Covid patients had the opposite finding," Gerner added. The researchers are confident that in the near future, they will be able to offer significantly improved diagnostic options for long Covid syndrome and, above all, monitoring methods to evaluate the effects of therapy.

European researchers identify triggers for long Covid syndrome

The team from the University of Yamanashi successfully developed a fertilised <keyword id="2642" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mouse" source="Orion">mouse</keyword> <keyword id="18048" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="egg" source="Orion">egg</keyword> into a blastocyst at the orbiting lab, The Japan News reported. The blastocyst can be explained as the stage where the cells differentiate for the first time into inner cell mass cells that go on to become the foetus, and trophectoderm cells to later become the placenta. The research, published online in the journal iScience, revealed that 720 two-cell frozen mouse embryos were sent to the <keyword id="6416825" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="iss" source="Orion">ISS</keyword>, using a device developed by the team that also allowed astronauts to easily handle early mouse embryos. The team thawed and cultured the embryos for four days. Of the embryos, 360 were cultured in a device in the <keyword id="6373366" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="japanese" source="Orion">Japanese</keyword> Kibo experiment module that generates 1G of gravity, the same amount felt on Earth. The remaining 360 were cultured in a zero-gravity setting. The embryos were then fixed in formalin and sent back to Earth to be compared with embryos from a similar test on Earth. Over 60 per cent of the embryos from the Earth test developed into blastocysts, while the rate stood at 29.5 per cent for the embryos in the 1G space test and 23.6 per cent for the zero-gravity test, the report said. "We found that, even under zero-gravity conditions, embryos develop normally until they reach the blastocyst stage," Teruhiko Wakayama, professor at the University was quoted as saying by The Japan News. "In the case of mammals, we need to examine whether they will implant and grow properly," Wakayama added. The experiment found that the differentiations, rate of DNA damage and gene expressions of blastocysts developed in zero-gravity did not differ from those in other settings. The research also found that the inner cell mass cells in three of the 12 blastocysts from the zero-gravity test examined in detail clustered in two places, instead of the usual one. Such blastocysts have the possibility of developing into identical monozygotic twins, the report said.

Japan researchers grow mouse embryos in space for first time

Researchers have identified a protein found in superbugs that enhances SARS-CoV-2 replication by 10- to 15-fold. Global data shows nearly 10 per cent of severe Covid-19 cases involve a secondary bacterial co-infection - with <keyword id="401097" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="staphylococcus" source="Orion">Staphylococcus</keyword> aureus, also known as staph A, being the most common organism responsible for co-existing infections with SARS-CoV-2. The study, published in the journal iScience, revealed that the addition of a "superbug" - methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) - into the mix could make the Covid-19 outcome even more deadly. While the mystery of how and why the combination of these two pathogens contributes to the severity of the disease remained unsolved, the researchers identified a protein - IsdA - found in all strains of staph A which boosts SARS-CoV-2 replication by 10- to 15-fold. The findings of this study are significant and could help inform the development of new therapeutic approaches for Covid-19 patients with bacterial co-infections. Interestingly, the study also showed that SARS-CoV-2 did not affect the bacteria's growth. This was contrary to what the researchers had initially expected. "We started with an assumption that SARS-CoV-2 and hospitalisation due to Covid-19 possibly caused patients to be more susceptible to bacterial infections which eventually resulted in worse outcomes," said <keyword id="16892593" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="mariya-goncheva" source="Orion">Mariya Goncheva</keyword>, Professor of biochemistry and microbiology at the University of Victoria. <keyword id="16892594" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="goncheva" source="Orion">Goncheva</keyword> said bacterial infections are most commonly acquired in hospital settings and hospitalisation increases the risk of co-infection. "Bacterial infections are one of the most significant complications of respiratory viral infections such as Covid-19 and Influenza A. Despite the use of antibiotics, 25 per cent of patients co-infected with SARS-CoV-2 and bacteria, die as a result. This is especially true for patients who are hospitalised, and even more so for those in intensive care units. We were interested in finding why this happens," said Goncheva, who conducted the study while at the <keyword id="385476" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="university-of-western-ontario" source="Orion">University of Western Ontario</keyword>. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/consistent-with-dignity-socially-acceptable-sc-mulls-panel-to-examine-less-painful-method-of-execution/articleshow/98862566.cms">'Consistent with dignity, socially acceptable', SC mulls panel to examine less painful method of execution</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/sennheiser-launches-hd-660s2-headphones-at-54990-in-india/articleshow/98862622.cms">Sennheiser launches HD 660S2 headphones at ₹54,990 in India</a>

Co-infection with 'superbug' spikes Covid virus replication by 15-fold

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The way pigeons problem solve is very similar to AI, researchers say.</li><li>Pigeons use the same "brute force" method often seen in artificial intelligence.</li></ul>It turns out the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.insider.com/birds-arent-real-parody-designed-to-fight-lunacy-with-lunacy-2022-5">"birds aren't real" people</a> may have had a point after all.Researchers at Ohio State University and the University of Iowa found that pigeons use a "brute force" method of problem-solving, similar to what is found in artificial intelligence, according to a <a target="_blank" href="https://news.osu.edu/dim-witted-pigeons-use-the-same-principles-as-ai-to-solve-tasks/">news release</a>.Brandon Turner, a psychology professor at Ohio State, said researchers found "really strong evidence that the mechanisms guiding pigeon learning are remarkably similar to the same principles that guide modern machine learning and AI," according to the release.Researchers showed the birds a stimulus, including lines of various widths, concentric rings, and sectioned rings, which the bird had to categorize by pecking a button on the left or right. If it got the answer correct, it received a treat, the release says.Through trial and error, the pigeons improved their performance from 55% to 95% correct answers in one easier task, according to the release. Researchers performed the same tests using AI and found the AI also learned to decrease its amount of mistakes.The study, published in the journal <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(23)02075-8">IScience</a>, says that pigeons have advanced cognitive and attentional processes and can solve an "exceptionally broad" range of categorization tasksTurner said the findings indicate that pigeons are natural "incredibly efficient" learners who cannot generalize information the way humans can, according to the release.According to Turner, pigeons use associative learning, which connects two things, such as dogs understanding that they will receive a treat when they sit. Typically, associative learning is thought to be "too primitive" to do things like visual categorization, Turner said in the release, but apparently not for pigeons.The researchers said humans tend to give up on tasks like those given to the pigeons when they can't come up with rules to make sense of the tasks."Pigeons don't try to make rules. They just use this brute force way of trial and error and associative learning and in some specific types of tasks that helps them perform better than humans," Turner said.He noted that humans often "celebrate how smart we are that we designed artificial intelligence; at the same time we disparage pigeons as dim-witted animals." "But the learning principles that guide the behaviors of these AI machines are pretty similar to what pigeons use," Turner said.

Pigeons solve problems the same way AI does, study says

<ul><li><keyword id="8233031" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="airpods-pro" source="Orion">AirPods Pro</keyword> can help offer assistance to people with mild-to-moderate hearing problems. </li><li>People with severe SNHL and other types of hearing impairment were excluded from the study. </li><li>A hearing aid can cost up to sthousands of dollars, whereas Personal Sound Amplification Products are less expensive. </li><li>Read further to know more about the study.</li></ul>AirPods and earbuds are designed to offer a comfortable talking and listening experience and not to cater for any medical situation. But a study published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(22)01708-4">iScience </a>revealed that Personal Sound Amplification Products (PSAP) like <keyword id="6354427" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="apple" source="Orion">Apple</keyword>'s AirPods Pro could help people in hearing better. Apple does not sell its premium AirPods Pro as a hearing aid, but a study reveals that it can help individuals with mild-to-moderate <keyword id="32708" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="hearing-loss" source="Orion">hearing loss</keyword>. The study compared hearing performances among adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss when aided with each <keyword id="15585224" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="hearing-assistive-device" source="Orion">hearing assistive device</keyword> –AirPods 2 and AirPods Pro and hearing aids. A total of 21 individuals were included in this study who had no experience of using hearing aid. AirPods 2 and AirPods Pro were connected with the iPhone XS Max smartphones with iOS version 13.0 for the study. The hearing performance of hearing aids and AirPods were then analysed to understand the similarity and differences between them in the study, which was supported by grants from the National Science and Technology Council, Veterans General Hospitals and the University System of Taiwan Joint Research Program. The electroacoustic features like maximum output sound pressure level at 90 dB sound, frequency response bandwidth, frequency response smoothness, and more were compared. AirPods Pro had the most similar features, whereas AirPods 2 met only some features in comparison to a hearing aid. The results of the study claim that AirPods Pro can be considered a good option to use by people who have mild-to-moderate hearing problems. The basic hearing aid device and AirPod Pro showed nearly the same performance, on the other hand, the AirPod 2 was not a good fit for this. Hearing aids are definitely the best solution to offer a better hearing experience but are available at a high cost and might require a medical prescription. Comparatively, Personal Sound Amplification Products like AirPods Pro, are easily available at a reasonable price, require no medical document and can assist in hearing better, making it a tempting option. Although the study does open up exciting possibilities for using AirPods Pro for its style, functionality, sound amplification features, and for countering social stigma associated with using hearing aids, it must be borne in mind that AirPods don’t meet the Food and Drug Administration standards to work as a hearing aid. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/homegrown-brands-dominate-the-truly-wireless-earbud-segment-as-shipments-double-in-india/articleshow/95602624.cms" style="">Homegrown brands dominate the truly wireless earbud segment as shipments double in India</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/amazon-launches-prime-video-mobile-edition-at-599-per-year/articleshow/95357687.cms" style="">Amazon launches Prime Video Mobile Edition at ₹599 per year, here's what it includes</a>

Study finds Apple's AirPods Pro may serve as a hearing-assistive device for mild-to-moderate hearing loss

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Researchers found a unique way to identify what people ate thousands of years ago.</li><li>They analyzed proteins from 5,000-year-old copper-alloy cauldrons to see what animals people cooked.</li></ul>About 5,000 years ago, ancient cooks were creating feasts out of cattle, deer, and milk from sheep or goats.They could've been eating their meat and dairy separately or mixing it all together. The evidence for the meals comes from proteins found in skillfully made <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/archaeologists-upper-class-bronze-age-man-who-underwent-brain-surgery-2023-2">Bronze Age</a> pots that were "used to cook a large amount of meat with some milk that we suggest was in the form of a stew," Shevan Wilkin told Insider in an email. They're some of the earliest known metal cooking cauldrons.Wilkin and Viktor Trifonov co-authored the study, which appeared in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(23)01559-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">iScience</a> this month. Researchers have tried studying ancient dietary habits from ceramics dishes before <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/cen-10041-scicon4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">with little success</a>, but Wilkin thinks the antimicrobial properties of the copper-alloy cauldrons helped preserve the ancient biomolecules."This finding was incredibly exciting, as it opens the possibility of many more studies into the foods and drinks prepared, served, or consumed from metallic cups, bowls, or larger vessels," she said. <h2>Cattle, sheep, and goat could have all been on the menu</h2>Taking samples from seven copper-alloy cauldrons allowed the researchers to get some specific dietary information from proteins that, remarkably, still remained in the vessels 5,000 years later. The pots contained blood, muscle, and milk proteins, representing several different types of animals. Heat shock protein beta-1, abundant in muscle tissue, helps <a href="https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/gene/hspb1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">protect cells</a> from infection and inflammation. An amino acid sequence in the tissue protein researchers identified belongs to the bovine subfamily or deer genus Cervus. The Bronze Age chefs could have been making cow, yak, water buffalo, or wild deer. Wilkin and Trifonov also found three different blood proteins, including one specific to sheep or goats. The milk proteins show the Maykop people were also getting their dairy from these animals.One cauldron had both blood and milk proteins. The researchers said the pot's owners may have cooked the meat and dairy together, but it's impossible to tell for sure.It's also unknown if the stew contained grains or other crops."We don't learn anything about the plants that they might have been cooking in there," said <a href="https://arf.berkeley.edu/who-we-are/faculty-director/christine-hastorf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christine Hastorf</a>, director of the Archaeological Research Facility at the University of California, Berkeley, who wasn't involved in the study.She notes that stews often contain vegetables, but animal proteins are sturdier and more likely to survive. <h2>Part of a communal kitchen</h2>Wilkin believes creating these pots would have been a complicated process. "This is one of the earliest known cauldrons to date," she said. "It would have taken a lot of knowledge and skill to make it." Based on radiocarbon dating, the pots are from between 3,520 to 3,350 BCE, during the Maykop period and were found in a few burial sites east of the Black Sea. <div type="image" title="Green hills, trees, and mountains are part of the landscape in the Maykopsky District, Adygea Republic in Russia" height="1499" width="1999" msid="102996866" hostid="261" sizebytes="477442"></div>Procuring the necessary metal and finding someone skilled enough to craft the pot meant not everyone could have one. "The cauldrons are associated exclusively with the burials of the elite," Trifonov said.Yet the capacity of the pots — the largest had a volume of 70 liters — indicates the Maykop people used them for communal cooking. "From the size, it is clear that this was a very large meal cooked for many people, rather than for a small family or individual," Wilkin said. Other types of evidence of Bronze Age-era diets help verify the researchers' protein results, Wilkin said. Cattle, sheep, goat, and deer bones <a href="https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/32784/1/585-601.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are common</a> at Maykop sites. <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=509a045517bb1c97c831a9924ab85aeffa75bd28359ebba1236c57bcd7b4ebe2&amp;postID=64dfbe7df87b369c6da2f31e&amp;postSlug=bronze-age-cauldrons-show-evidence-what-ancient-feasts-looked-like-2023-8&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41559-022-01701-6%23ref-CR40" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dental deposits</a> from contemporary human remains reveal <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=9aca729bf7004ac6f49ca6f0bae1dc4b3a581862381111e7b2099774364110db&amp;postID=64dfbe7df87b369c6da2f31e&amp;postSlug=bronze-age-cauldrons-show-evidence-what-ancient-feasts-looked-like-2023-8&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41586-021-03798-4%23ref-CR1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">they consumed</a> a lot of dairy products. Going forward, Wilkin thinks analyzing proteins from metal cooking vessels could lead to new discoveries in other locations, too."This can really open up studies of how people cooked and served food across time and space, and that is very exciting," she said.Hastorf agrees: "These are the studies that are going to move us forward on real foodways in the past," she said. "There's no doubt."

5,000-year-old cauldrons of the Bronze Age are so well preserved they offer archeologists the 'first evidence' of an ancient feast consisting of milk and meat

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/nobel-prize-in-medicine-unusual-pick-geneticist-svante-paeaebo-2022-10">Neanderthals</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tooth-denisovan-proves-extinct-human-species-asia-130000-years-2022-5">Denisovans</a> — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/human-genome-overlaps-neanderthals-ancestors-2021-7">extinct human relatives</a> — may've had similar senses of smell to ours.</li><li>Scientists recreated our <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/denisovans-neanderthals-humans-occupied-denisova-cave-siberia-2021-6">ancient cousins</a>' odor receptors in the lab to see what they could smell.</li></ul>If you walk through the woods and pass a beehive, you may catch the sweet scent of honey in the wind and suddenly be flooded with memories: having tea with grandma, or eating warm biscuits on a Sunday morning.If you were taking that walk 300,000 years ago with a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/denisovan-dna-tibet-human-ancestors-high-altitudes-2020-12">Denisovan</a> — a now-extinct hominid closely related to Homo sapiens and first discovered in 2010 — by the time you smelled the honey your companion might have already been climbing the tree for a sugary treat.That's because Denisovans appear to have been especially sensitive to sweet smells like honey or vanilla, new research <a href="https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(22)02181-2?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2589004222021812%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">published</a> in the journal iScience in January suggests. That may have helped them find food. Meanwhile, one group of a related species — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neanderthal-extinction-earth-magnetic-poles-flip-climate-change-2021-2">Neanderthals</a> — developed a mutation that could have spared them the smell of their own body odors.<div type="image" title="A reconstructed image of a female Denisovan's face." height="1080" width="1440" msid="97586611" hostid="261"></div>Humans have a lot of genetic diversity in our olfactory receptors, which govern smell, allowing us to detect a wide array of scents. Researchers think that helped humans adapt to new environments as they spread across the globe, sniffing out new foods and new predators.It's a popular idea that humans have a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.0020146" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bad sense of smell</a>, as compared with dogs, for instance. But dogs live in the world so differently that the comparison may not mean much. Understanding our earliest relatives — the other Homo species that migrated out of Africa alongside us — can offer better context for our own sense of smell, and give us a sniff of life at our origins.The researchers Kara Hoover, a biological anthropologist from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks who is now working at the National Science Foundation, and Claire de March, a biochemist at the Université Paris-Saclay, reconstructed odor receptors from the genomes of three Neanderthals, one Denisovan, an ancient human, and a database of modern human genomes. It was an attempt to recreate the noses of our closest ancient relatives.<div type="image" title="A museum employee looking at a model of a Neanderthal." height="2342" width="3122" msid="97586614" hostid="261"></div>"We have to really understand ourselves within our own context," rather than comparing humans to dogs or mice, as previous research on smell receptors has done, Hoover said. "When people look at humans, they see us as this bizarre outlier. But in fact, we weren't."<h2>Bringing ancient noses to life in the lab</h2><div type="image" title="A man in a white labcoat in a white laboratory holding up a tray of grains to smell." height="1500" width="1999" msid="97586617" hostid="261"></div>Hoover compared the genomes of the Neanderthals and the Denisovan with those of humans, targeting 30 olfactory receptors — genes that allow us to perceive odors. She identified 11 receptors that contained unique DNA variations in the extinct species, variations that didn't appear in humans.Then de March built those unique receptors in the lab, by mutating human receptors to match the amino-acid sequence of the extinct Neanderthal or Denisovan.She then exposed the extinct receptors to hundreds of odors and measured their responses by how quickly and intensely they lit up with activity.<div type="image" title="A computer illustration of an ancient Denisovan wearing fur." height="1425" width="1900" msid="97586619" hostid="261"></div>The sample size in this study was small, since only a few individual Neanderthals and Denisovans have been genetically mapped. Graham Hughes of University College Dublin, who studies sensory perception in the genomes of mammals and is not affiliated with the study, also noted that DNA degrades over time, which can affect the results of any assessment of ancient genomes.Still, "the fact that we can now look at the genomes of ancient species and determine their possible sensory spaces and dietary specialties is very exciting for the field of sensory perception," Hughes told Insider in an email.To Hoover's surprise, the Neanderthals, Denisovan, and humans all appeared to have the same repertoire of smells.It wasn't that our extinct relatives could smell scents undetectable to humans, or vice versa. Instead, the Denisovan turned out to have a more sensitive nose than humans, while Neanderthals seemed to have weaker noses — especially, in one group, for stinky body odors.<h2>A lucky mutation for cave-bound Neanderthals</h2><div type="image" title="A model showing a Neanderthal family near a fire." height="2232" width="3968" msid="97586623" hostid="261"></div>One of the Neanderthals had a genetic mutation that diminished its ability to smell androstadienone — a chemical associated with the scents of urine and sweat. That could've been a big help for those living in close proximities with other Neanderthals in caves."It is kind of funny that of all the things they would stop smelling, it would be that," Hoover said.The Neanderthal used in the study represents an entire population of the species that lived at high altitude in Siberia. The other Neanderthal samples, from different parts of the world, didn't have that mutation.Only two smell-related genes from the Neanderthal genome were different from humans'.<h2>A Denisovan by any other name would smell what's 'sweet'</h2>The Denisovan's propensity for sniffing out sweet scents may have helped them find high-calorie, sugary foods like honey. Its receptors also responded with heightened sensitivity to spicy smells, like cloves or herbs.<div type="image" title="A woman smelling a basil plant." height="1500" width="1999" msid="97586625" hostid="261"></div>Hoover described this as one of the first biological insights we have into Denisovans.It's difficult to jump from genetic information, to the activity of odor receptors, and then to the subjective sensory experience of an individual — much less how they might behave in response."Each person might perceive things slightly different, and we can never say that what we consider as being 'sweet' smelling is the same as what another species would consider 'sweet' smelling," Graham said.Still, the study opens a bridge from the DNA to the real-world experience of our extinct relatives. More research like it, with more samples of ancient genomes, could reveal a clearer picture of Neanderthal and Denisovan life."Ultimately, what our work showed us is that we're more alike than we are different" when it comes to smell, Hoover said.

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