Journal of Phylogenetics & Evolutionary Biology

Human and Animal Brain Phospholipids Fatty Acids, Evolution and Mood Disorders

Abstract

Massimo Cocchi, Lucio Tonello, Fabio Gabrielli and Chiara Minuto

The purpose of this paper is to connect the experimental evidence concerning brain phospholipids fatty acids composition by comparing the first warm-blooded animal in the phylogeny (birds) with the human brain at various ages of life (from the fetal period until the eightieth year of age). The particularity of our investigation is an almost unique opportunity for groped a hypothesis about the evolutionary aspects of the behavior of brain and consciousness, as represented in the human and animal world, as a result of the evidence that led to the diagnostic classification of mood disorders in humans, in their similarity with some animal species. A logical sequence of considerations about the mood disorder diagnosis, due to unequivocal evidence by the use of mathematical tools that cannot be manipulated, it leads to results that most probably indicate and suggest the existence of a common brain “biochemical house“, in man and animal. This “common house” will become more and more complex, during evolution, from animal to man, respecting the concept of the molecular equilibrium and allowing to each living being the adaptation to their needs and their roles. Small deviations from the biochemical equilibrium of brain fatty acids can manifest pathological behavioral responses, much amplified. Everything seems to be witnessed by the strong classificatory correspondence of the platelets fatty acids which correspond to psycho pathologies, especially for the Linoleic acid and alpha Linolenic acid, in particular the Linoleic Acid, which, to varying percentages, it may correspond to psychopathological phenomena.