Our VI.thematic meeting on Evolutionary Medicine with the title "Personality andbehavior: The boundaries between normality and disease. An evolutionaryapproach" dealt with neurological and psychiatric diseases of genetic orenvironmental origin and the significant impact on the quality of life ofindividuals and their families.

The meetingbegan with the conference "Neurodegenerative Diseases in the evolutionarydebate", given by Victor Volpini, who talked about how these diseasesaffect individuals in adulthood in post-reproductive periods. He centralized hispresentation on ataxias and involved genes and explained the concept of sprandels,which is a term introduced by Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin in 1979,and employed in evolutionary biology, referring to those features or elementsthat have not evolved as a result of biological adaptation, but as a result ofthe emergence of other adaptations through natural selection. He concluded thatneurodegenerative diseases are characteristic of longevity, which in earliertimes would be infrequent and longevity in men may have started as a sprandel,meiotically inherited by having a possible adaptive value in women.

 Juan JoséCarballo's and Clara Isabel Gomez communication "Is hyperactivity a moderndisease?" deepened into the epidemiology, aetiology and heritability ofhiperactivity, as well as the adaptive advantages of this entity. Given thehigh prevalence (5-10%) and extension of ADHD worldwide, it is unlikely that a"disorder" can be so prevalent in the human species if not positivelyselected.

The 7-DRD4allele whose gene is the D4 dopamine receptor, the most studied candidate genein ADHD, has been described as the positively selected allelic form. Thepresence of this allele has been associated with the personality trait ofnovelty seeking, and his presence confers a genetic risk between 25-50% ofdeveloping ADHD. Individuals with these features in a sedentary populationbecomes marginal, whereas in nomadic populations individuals are successful. Ithas been found that there is a positive correlation if we look at the currentgeographical distribution of allele DRD4-7R, which is low in the more stablepopulations and Asia, but high in populations with high migration influence asin America.

AntonioJosé Cabranes in his speech "Obesity? Biology, nutrients andemotions" reviewed how the biological system attempts to maintain weightand how specific genetic and environmental factors may influence it. He spokeof the heritability of obesity and involved genes and how stress early in lifecan influence the development of the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis andalso the the regulation of hormones related hunger / satiety and alter behaviorof intake on the long term. In his reflections we noted the existence of a"critical" link between stressors and obesity induced by ingestion.So he exhibited e.g. excessive intake of "palatable" foods in anenvironment of reward when there is no possibility for the typical reaction of"fight or flight" to a danger stimulus.

 After thebreak Pedro García Ruiz-Tang intervened with a lecture entitled "Mor-phologiclevolutionary brain changes and movement disorders. What have we achieved and atwhat price? ". He explored the changes of the human brain in the lastthousands years and how these changes may be related to movement disorders, suchas deficits in neurotransmitter (Parkinson) or by excess (dystonia). Many ofthese disorders are only human and related to the specific evolutionarydevelopment, such as Parkinson's disease, with a high prevalence (1% in thoseover 70 years) or the cultural environment such as in dystonias. Parkinson'sdisease, in which there is a deficiency of the neurotransmitter dopamine, maybe related to the substantia nigra, which did not raise enough in size, but hasevolved innervation to other areas to a much greater degree. The distonías are characterizedby muscle contractions in abnormal postures. A highly repetitive action canlead to occupational dystonia. It is estimated that one in ten musicians developoccupational dystonia that prevents them to continue their profession.

In the nextlecture Estrella Gomez Tortosa with her communication "Clinical andgenetic correlations in degenerative dementias" defined the concept ofdementia as a global and acquired decline of intellectual faculties, and alsoindicated that between 30 and 50% of the degenerative dementias, such asAlzheimer's disease, have a hereditary character with a bout twenty known geneswhose alterations have been associated with different phenotypes of dementia.Again, human longevity appears as a risk factor for the occurrence of suchdiseases.

 FinallyEnrique Baca García with a presentation entitled "Mood Disorders. Evolutionaryadvantages vs. disadvantages " talked about depression (which can be aclaim of care from other people to the depressed individual) and costs (10% oflost work hours for depression), on anxiety and its possible adaptive value, aswell as certain types of seasonal depressions that in past periods could havebeen advantageous for the population as it lowered the activity level of theindividual in periods of shortage.

During thedebates the assistants to the meeting discussed that evolutionary medicinecould be a possible way to establish new lines of research and that certaindiseases could be mismatches to the current environment. Cephalization(one of the distinctive evolutionary traits of the human species) along withlongevity (which allows efficient transmission of culture, also characteristicof the genus Homo sapiens) paysomehow the success they have assumed in our species. Someclinical examples emerged and opened the discussion of the  possible practical applicability of the proposedideas in the different presentations, such as the positive effect of preventivemeasures of some neurodegenerative diseases through exercise or adequatenutrition.