Less than a decade later there was experimental support for the right hemispheric involvement of "intrusive" experiences into awareness. Although imaging technology has shown us that the cerebral volume in which "mind space" exists is configurational and complex, the results strongly support Jaynes's essential thesis. But perhaps the most compelling congruence with Jaynes's insights is genetics. Within the last five years science has found that single point mutations on genes can produce permanent changes in speech production. There is now evidence that point mutations, whose mechanisms must still be discerned, can diffuse within decades throughout entire populations. There have been approximately 15 million changes in our species' genome since our common ancestor with the chimpanzee. There are human accelerated regions in the genome with genes known to be involved in transcriptional regulation and neurodevelopment. They are expressed within brain structures that would have allowed precisely the types of phenomena that Jaynes predicted had occurred around 3,500 years ago. Related genes, attributed to religious beliefs, are found on the same chromosome {for example, chromosome 10} as propensities for specific forms of epilepsy {partial, with auditory features} and schizophrenia. From what we now know about antibody titres and viral infections, the concept of a relatively swift and pervasive change in the microstructure and function of all human brains is no longer that improbable.
( Marcel Kuijsten )
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