800 words
It’s always talked about in race realist circles what caused the migration Out of Africa and what gives us an urge and sense of wonder for adventure. Well, like with most things in life, there is a genetic reason behind it.
So I use this website called StumbleUpon and I was Stumbling in the Genetics section, and I came across this article, and as I was reading it, I knew that it was going to be rare in Africans.
And what do you know, I was right.
Seems like the gene developed around 40,000 years ago. It’s obviously not just a coincidence or ‘correlation doesn’t equal causation’ argument, as a whole bunch of research backs this gene, and specific alleles, to certain traits in humans, compared to migration, or lack thereof, around the world.
From some research, I found that the abstract of the article says: it’s linked to hyperactivity, novelty-seeking and risk-taking behaviors. Consistent with findings in animal studies was: having more exploratory behavior as well as increased speed and locomotion. Populations with a history of migration in the past 1 to 30,000 years will show the highest instance of having the DRD4 alleles. Those that migrated more miles have a higher rate than those that migrated less. Sedentary populations show a lower instance of the DRD4 allele.
The abstract also says “After compiling existing data on DRD4 allele frequencies of 2,320 individuals from 39 populations and on the migration pattern of these groups, we found that, compared to sedentary populations, migratory populations showed a higher proportion of long alleles for DRD4.”
A correlation of .85 was found with km traveled and rate of DRD4 allele frequency distributions, which support the hypothesis. Nomadic populations had a 10.4 percent higher rate of DRD4 long alleles than sedentary ones.
Here is a blog post talking about the DRD4-7 genes and how they are involved with dopamine levels in the brain and have to do with motivation and behavior.
It cites a researcher saying that the gene occurs in populations that migrated first and furthest out of Africa are more likely to have the gene.
Another blog talks about how Africans with the 4R allele stayed in Africa whereas those with the 7R left and explored the world.
Research has found that it’s easier for the 2R allele to mutate into a 7R allele than for a 7R allele to mutate back to a 4R allele.
So it’s thought that those who emigrated but remained closer to Africa, such as Asia, lost the behavior to explore and settled rather than explore the Americas (which Siberians did do, who eventually became Indians. I would assume that they would have a higher prevalence of this gene, being as they migrated to the Americas while the Africans stayed in Africa, as well as Indians being the furthest genetically from Africans, it also makes sense there). Also saying that those who emigrated to Asia had the 7R, but stayed and it mutated to the 2R over time.
It says looking at the global prevalence of certain allele frequencies, the 4R is more common in Africa, the 2R in Asia, the 7R in the Americas (mostly South), supporting the theory for the 7R allele being the cause for global expansion and positive selection.
Found this article talking about how the DRD4 allele is a role “in the escalation of substance use during adolescence and potential for an enhanced understanding of early-onset substance use.” and those with the 7R allele “Supporting the differential susceptibility to parenting hypothesis, the results suggest a greater preventive effect for youths carrying a 7-repeat allele”.
This NatGeo article says “Most provocatively, several studies tie 7R to human migration. The first large genetic study to do so, led by Chuansheng Chen of the University of California, Irvine in 1999, found 7R more common in present-day migratory cultures than in settled ones. A larger, more statistically rigorous 2011 study supported this, finding that 7R, along with another variant named 2R, tends to be found more frequently than you would expect by chance in populations whose ancestors migrated longer distances after they moved out of Africa. Neither study necessarily means that the 7R form of the gene actually made those ancestors especially restless; you’d have to have been around back then to test that premise with certainty. But both studies support the idea that a nomadic lifestyle selects for the 7R variant.”
All in all, this shows a genetic reason WHY the migration OoA began. It’s very telling that the DDR7 allele first arose when we migrated OoA.
NotPoliticallyCorrect 
Or Sardinians being more disadvantaged than Africans, because it’s apparently non-existent in them.
If you look around, you find ADD/ADHD is apparently less frequently diagnosed in blacks and hispanics than in whites (http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/minority-kids-diagnosed-adhd-article-1.1380963), but you also don’t consider that ADD/ADHD can easily be associated with introversion, social awkwardness etc. ADD/ADHD cases are hardly across the board impulsive and reckless, nevermind that it’s not really a good thing to have a high rate of ADD/ADHD. I’d imagine the lower rates are due to some kind of under-diagnosis, because ADD/ADHD has been renowned to be improperly diagnosed, to the point of over-diagnosis.
At the end of the day, linking these behaviors and ADD/ADHD to this allele (in large part because it’s in the same family as others associated with the behavior, nevermind that means it could have a completely different function, be associated with other things, or not at all related to any behavior) really doesn’t have a lot to stand on. People who articulate these things in a popular context seem reluctant to remark on racial implications, but people who accept “HBD” seem to have the habit of linking them to behaviors that don’t match up with any of the populations in question (or seemingly make things up, like the Amren article on hispanics/amerinds.)
“it’s linked to hyperactivity, novelty-seeking and risk-taking behaviors.”
“So it’s thought that those who emigrated but remained closer to Africa, such as Asia, lost the behavior to explore and settled rather than explore the Americas.”
So wait- africans aren’t known for hyperactivity, novelty-seeking, and risk-taking behaviors? Or is it just the desire to explore?
I’ve seen these kinds of writings on this specific DRD4 allele, and have realized they’re largely nonsensical, because they seldom match up with the behaviors of people in question. Consider this on native americans:
http://www.amren.com/archives/back-issues/may-2000/#article3
“Interestingly, American Indians are thought to be descended from East Asians who crossed into the Americas. Among those who traveled farthest — South American Indians — the frequency of a long DRD4 reaches 78 percent. (Perhaps this explains some of the high incidence of ADHD and educational difficulties among Central American and South American Indian and Mestizo immigrants to the U.S.)”
Weird, because native americans are typically regarded as stoic people, and behavior measurements/observations have shown native american infants to be the least active.
And you find this: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/09/26/latino_children_show_low_adhd_rate/
“Among Indo-Europeans the study finds that “the Sardinians, who live geographically closer to the origin of their language family, had 0% long alleles … , whereas the average for other European groups was 20%.” Although the difference is not statistically significant, there was even a difference between Europeans in Europe and Europeans in the U.S. for the long forms (15.75 percent vs. 22 percent).”
So is someone supposed to believe Sardinians have drastically lower rates (possibly nearly non-existent) of ADD/ADHD than other europeans?
The whole thing with human migrations seems to boil down the reason why people branch off from another ethnic group and move to new lands to a handful of personality traits- pretty sure there’s more involved there. Nevermind behaviors as complex as that are due to far more than one allele.
You end off with “Yet another genetic reason why we are better,” but wouldn’t that apply most to native americans?
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Yes I have read that.
I personally don’t think it is real (but I have read some recent things that they have found certain genes I believe it is for ADD and ADHD?). I may be biased, as I have first hand experience with ADD and ADHD drugs, they changed my personality and I didn’t like it so I stopped taking it. I don’t believe it’s a real ‘disease’.
Anyway, I’m diverging.
Correct, and on average, blacks are pretty extroverted, wouldn’t you say?
Definitely agree. It’s way over diagnosed, it’s like if kids have can’t ‘sit still’ for more than 5 minutes, they automatically get diagnosed with one, or both.
You’re talking about the low rates of ADD and ADHD in them, correct?
As we both agreed on, the diagnoses of the 2 are not too reliable and kids get over-diagnosed. I can’t find the link I had with tons of sources from PhD’s and MD’s stating that it’s not real, as well as what Ritalin does and it’s effects on growing minds.
So you’re basically saying that because those 2 populations have low rates of ADD and ADHD, that the DDR4 allele isn’t part of the reason for migration because of low prevalence of the disease in those 2 populations?
Of course they are. Those are low-IQ behaviors (see why I think that ‘disease’ is stupid? Though, I wonder if there is a high correlation between ‘ADD and ADHD’ and having a low IQ?)
Yes, I would personally say that the desire to explore is.
From a citation I provided in the post:
“Another more recent study also reported similar findings: those who lived in cultures whose ancestors migrated out of Africa the furthest and the fastest/earliest were more likely to have the DRD4-7r gene (Dobbs, 2012). These findings suggest that this gene could be the motivation behind the yearning to travel, to move and to see the world: as it possibly did with our ancient ancestors.”
—————–
“Populations with longer histories of migrating
tended to have a greater frequency of DRD4 7R alleles.”
“While we can’t be sure why the 7R allele is more prevalent
in more migratory populations, it might be that people with behavioral
traits related to ADHD were more likely to want to migrate
away from their homes.”
Click to access eisenberg-and-campbell-2011-the-evolution-of-ADHD-artice-in-SF-Medicine.pdf
Are you talking about all Indians as a whole, or just the ones in NA? The ones in SA have a higher prevalence of the 7R allele (linked to ‘ADD’).
I know of no studies, do you?
I agree. Though, wouldn’t you say that those with the allele would have those personality traits more, on average? We know that the Big 5 Personality Traits are around 50 percent heritable.
I agree that the behaviors are more complex than one allele, but the studies are good to show that the mutations in the allele lead to the migration around the world.
Well, it’s obviously my opinion. And yes, South American Indians did travel the furthest, and they do have higher prevalence of the allele. Europeans explored the world, and because of that are the cause for modern society, that’s what I meant by that
Here is a link on ADD being fake:
http://postinstitute.com/blog/2015/03/25/adhd-not-a-real-disease-says-leading-neuroscientist-dr-bruce-perry/
I’ll get back to you on that other link I was talking about.
2 Questions for you:
What is your opinion on HBD? And my thoughts on ADD and ADHD: Would you say that what I believe with the DDR4 allele theory because I don’t believe that ADHD and ADD are real?
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