Nevertheless, there were a few who lived to a ripe old age, also I don’t know if people dying from early onset Alzheirmer’s would behave the same as my husband and others I have known of who had later Alzheimer’s. Remember, average life expectancies include the many who died early. In fact, in my husband’s case, his grandmother or great grandmother, not the Cree Indian line, lost 4 of her 8 children (lived in southern Illinois, 1800s) around the age of two in August or September. Probably a result of death from weaning in the hot weather with no refrigerated food or milk.
At any rate I should think that any Neanderthal who lived to be that old would be especially strong, smart, and capable. If the Alzheimer’s genes are carried in the female line, then she could be the mate of such a successful male, live longer, and have more surviving children with all his good genes too. In other social group animals, it seems that the alpha male often is mated with the alpha female in the group.
In the case of my husband, I don’t know if he would have brought any food back if he had found some. I do know that as soon as I fed him, he was happy enough to sit and watch TV. He did retain a desire to put things away. I was repairing the roof on our little cabin, and he kept trying to put the ladder away. As soon as I saw it move I would have to crawl to the edge, and ask him to put it back because I was still up there. He could only remember things for 10 or 15 seconds at a time.
BTW, click on my name to see my ‘wolf pack’. The current ‘pack’ is on the top. I use that truck to go to the woods for a walk each day...they love it. The truck is 22 years old, runs great.
Like Alzheimer’s sufferers, autistics & schizophrenics also have a tendency to wander, basically going into their own world. Probably all three have similar brain structure. (Just my unscientific opinion.) It would be hard to know if this were also prevalent among Neanderthals.