Day: August 23, 2008

Nova: Ghost in Your Genes

The vertebrae in which hoxc-6 is active (marked purple) in both a chick embryo and garter snake embryo.
The vertebrae in which hoxc-6 is active (marked purple) in both a chick embryo and garter snake embryo.
Although the title of the special made me think of ‘Party in Your Pants’ (juvenile, I’m well aware), I thought I’d post a link to the website for the Nova special, ‘Ghost in Your Genes.’

The special explores epigenetics and the complex network of regulatory mechanisms that affect gene expression, including a nice little slideshow on Hox genes. We’ve explored the topic before here at Neuroanthropology (see Pharyngula on epigenetics) in part because a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of organic development tends to undermine the overly simplistic notion that there are two forces shaping any organism — genes and environment or ‘nature’ and ‘nurture.’ With the epigenetic material, it’s painfully obvious that genes are not some kind of organic destiny writ in DNA, as some popular understandings tend to have it (and that popular understanding is often mobilized in simplistic accounts of subjects like behavioural genetics, as we will know).

We’ve already discussed some of the quirks about twins’ genes here (at Identical twins not… err… identical?), and there’s a nice example of genetically identical twin mice looking anything but identical (and having significant differences in health). The story, ‘A Tale of Two Mice,’ has a sobering subtext about the effects on gene expression of BPA (Bisphenol A), an organic chemical known to leach out of plastics (see Wikipedia for a brief overview of the issues). However, I’m still not convinced that calling this complex interaction ‘the epigenome’ or ‘the second genome’ is moving in the right direction. Even with this reservation, the visual aids for thinking about epigenetic processes are excellent.

Thanks to Dr. Jovan Maud (from Macquarie University and Culture Matters) for pointing this piece out to me. Unfortunately, I just gave my lecture on this stuff a week and a half ago — I’m afraid that I confused my audience a lot more than the people at Nova. It’s a nice site though for getting a bit of a feel for the sorts of factors that affect gene expression.

Credits
The brilliant graphic accompanied a reprint of Sean B. Carroll’s article, ‘The Origins of Form: Ancient genes, recycled and repurposed, control embryonic development in organisms of striking diversity,’ originally published in Natural History, November 2005. Carroll’s article can be accessed here, and it’s a great entry-level piece on hox genes and basic ‘evo-devo’ thought, but the author of Endless Forms Most Beautiful.

Video Games, Brain and Psychology Round Up

After earlier round-ups on video games (#1 on gaming in itself, as a social form; #2 on social science and game design), I am adding this third round up covering gaming and mind/brain research.

Together all three round ups provide the background for approaching video games through neuroanthropology. Ideally this background would then serve to inform specific research on gaming, which I have addressed previously in discussing avatars, MMORPGs, and Grand Theft Auto, probably my most synthetic piece.

To place that work in context, you can also check out the popular post One Day at Kotaku: Understanding Video Games and Other Modern Obsessions. See also: video games and the neuroanthropology of interaction and gaming and cultural perception.

This round-up draws more on published research than the previous two. At times the best I could provide is a link to an abstract; where possible, I have tracked down pdfs. And if there are other good papers out there that I don’t mention, please leave a comment!

Games and Neuroscience

Shawn Green and Daphne Bavelier, The Cognitive Neuroscience of Video Games
Pdf of a comprehensive chapter that appeared in the book Digital Media: Transformations in Human Communication

Klaus Mathiak & Rene Weber, Toward Brain Correlates of Natural Behavior: fMRI during Violent Video Games
“We propose that virtual environments can be used to study neuronal processes involved in semi-naturalistic behavior as determined by content analysis. Importantly, the activation pattern reflects brain-environment interactions rather than stimulus responses as observed in classical experimental designs.”

Niklas Ravaja et al., Spatial Presence and Emotions during Video Game Playing: Does It Matter with Whom You Play?
Yes it does—playing against another person is different than playing against a computer

CS Green & D. Bavelier, Action-Video-Game Experience Alters the Spatial Resolution of Vision
“Compared with nonplayers, action-video-game players could tolerate smaller target-distractor distances. Thus, the spatial resolution of visual processing is enhanced in this population. Critically, similar effects were observed in non-video-game players who were trained on an action video game; this result verifies a causative relationship between video-game play and augmented spatial resolution.” Gaming can also reduce gender differences in spatial cognition.

Fumiko Hoeft et al., Gender Differences in the Mesocorticolimbic System during Computer Game-play
“males showed greater activation and functional connectivity compared to females in the mesocorticolimbic system. These findings may be attributable to higher motivational states in males, as well as gender differences in reward prediction, learning reward values and cognitive state during computer video games”

MJ Koepp et al., Evidence for Striatal Dopamine Release during a Video Game
Pdf of well-received 1998 Nature paper on reward, dopamine and gaming. Slightly dated now with its view of reward and dopamine, but definitely a foundational piece.

Niklas Ravaja, The Psychophysiology of Video Gaming: Phasic Emotional Responses to Game Events
Ever wonder why it’s fun? Both positive and negative game events when players actively involved in playing elicited “positive emotional responses in terms of facial EMG activity” (pdf)

Games and Embodiment

James Paul Gee, Video Games and Embodiment
Recent article in Games and Culture laying out Gee’s view on gaming and human thinking as both “situated and embodied”.

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