Paleoneurobiology

Paleopathology has, with few exceptions, not identified diseases of the nervous system. We use the term Paleoneurobiology to encompass a branch of knowledge concerned with the study of the neurobiology of ancient humans and animals. To begin with we embarked upon an examination of sural nerves, ventral spinal roots, cutaneous perivascular nerves and glycosylated hemoglobin. Samples of the aforementioned were taken from mummified remains in Egypt (2.000-3.500 years BP) and the Atacama Desert (1000-3000 years BP), and the specific results for each will be presented. The preservation of neurochemicals for millennia in sural nerves opens the possibility to asses the presence of peripheral nerve disease in ancient civilizations. Although the significance of neurochemicals in ventral spinal roots remains to be determined the possibility that these might be involved in some neurologic disorders needs to be explored. Perivascular cutaneous nerve preservation suggest that intraepidermal nerve fibers may also be demonstrable in ancient skin. These fibers have been shown to be importantly affected in peripheral neuropathies. The possibility to establish the presence of diabetes mellitus in ancient civilizations by measuring glyocsylated hemoglobin in mummified blood promises to shed light on the genetics of the high incidence of this disease in contemporaneous Native American populations.