according to the researchers , the pattern of associations that they discovered suggest that today ’s population retains neanderthal dna that may have provided modern humans with adaptive advantages 40,000 years ago as they migrated into new non - african environments with different pathogens and levels of sun exposure .
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“ our main finding is that neanderthal dna does influence clinical traits in modern human biology .
for example , they found that a specific bit of neanderthal dna significantly increases risk for nicotine addiction .
in fact , a surprisingly number of snippets of neanderthal dna were associated with psychiatric and neurological effects , the study found .
the new analysis found neanderthal dna affects cells called keratosis , which are caused by abnormal keratinocytes .
“ the brain is incredibly complex , so it ’s reasonable to expect that introducing changes from a different evolutionary path might have negative consequences , ” said vanderbilt doctoral student corinne simonti , the paper ’s first author .
however , many of these traits may no thank you for your interest in spreading the word about science .
in addition , there were a number of surprises .