Category: general

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.

US Presidential campaign wordpiles

What's on your mind?
What's on your mind?
The Boston Globe did a ‘Wordpile’ analysis of both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama’s websites and generated some fascinating graphics. Check out the original here. There’s lots one could say about these graphics — the Globe only highlights a few of the fascinating terms, and I’d want to try to chase down the context of a few that show up prominently because they look pretty ambiguous — but some factors stand out clear as day. The most obvious is that ‘Obama’ is the most mentioned word on both blogs. ‘Veeeery inturusting…’

The reason I bring this visual up though is that I found it a fascinating, graphically powerful way to present a basic qualitative-quantitative bit of research. Although I’m intrigued by research tools like nVivo and Atlas.ti, I sometimes wish that there were richer ways to present the data. This ‘Wordpile’ output is rich enough to put on a t-shirt! I’ll have to find some way to integrate it into my seminars on hybrid research methods.

And if anyone knows where I can lay my hands on the software or script to generate this sort of thing, please send along the link. A quick search didn’t give me anything, and I don’t want to sit in my office all Friday obsessing about this.

Les Perceptions Culturelles

Je voudrais parler de mes observations sur la vie en France et en Indonesie et expliquer pourquoi le fait d’avoir vecu un an en Indonesie m’a aidé a mieux comprendre le comportement des Parisiens.

Les Parisiens courent dans le metro, sont vite agressifs et s’enervent facilement. Par contre, les Indonesiens sont toujours des modeles de politesse et restent souriants en (presque) toutes circonstances. Les complications de la vie quotidienne sont acceptees comme inevitables et ne provoquent pas de colere. Ce n’est pas convenable de critiquer son prochain, la critique est mal vue et mal recue. Cette absence d’esprit critique suggere une contribution de la resignation et n’est que partiellement due aux conditions economiques. A mon avie, cette mentalité augmente aussi ces conditions economiques.

Je realise qu’on ne peut pas comparer une culture a une autre par des generalites mais il est parfois difficile de les eviter; en fait le terme “culture” est, lui-meme, une generalité. Bien sur tous les Indonesiens ne sont pas paresseux et tous les Parisiens ne sont pas “stressés”. Mais, lorsqu’on a l’occasion de vivre dans un certain milieu et de se conformer aux usages et habitudes locales de cette societe, on s’apercoit que certaines de ces coutumes sont considerees comme un trait specifique par une autre societe. Une analyse plus approfondie mêne a la notion de “caracteres nationaux”. Si on interroge un nombre de personnes qui ont voyagé dans le Metro Parisien et dans un “Angkot” a Sumatra, la similarité des remarques et observations conduit naturellement a une generalisation.

C’est a Paris que j’ai decouvert et apprecie l’aspect positif de la culture de la critique. C’est regrettable, bien sur, de voir la tension arterielle monter a cause de problemes auxquels on a, peut-etre, donné une importance exagerée, mais cette reaction est associée a la volonté de faire face a ces problemes et de les resoudre. De ce point de vue, l’apparente (ou reelle?) indifference de l’Indonesien aux vicissitudes de la vie quotidienne suggere une sorte de resignation qui tend a faire accepter les problemes comme inevitables et insolubles.

Quel est le comportement a choisir? Il n’y a probablement pas de réponse valide car le comportement de l’individu est conformé a celui de la societé dans laquelle il a evolué, de ses lois, ses coutumes, ses religions, son environnement etc, etc…

Lorsqu’un individu est introduit dans une societé de differente culture, l’assimilation est tres souvent achevée en une ou deux generations. Cette assimilation est probablement catalysée par le desir  “d’appartenance”.

En depit des differences caracteristiques separant les deux cultures ,je pense qu’ on peut detecter dans chacune un desir d’ameliorer  ses structures sociales et un certain sens de l’esthetique revelé par ses industries et ses arts.

Human evolution syllabus

I’ve been contributing too little to Neuroanthropology of late. To be honest, I’m exhausted. I’m doing a new class on human evolution and diversity for the anthropology department here at Macquarie University, and it’s kicking my posterior. I have all the usual time devouring requirements of a new class, with the added fun of 130 students, my own high expectations, and my desire to put biocultural and biological anthropology on a bit more solid footing here. I was never trained to do this — although I really enjoyed human evolution, archaeology, and biological anthropology as an undergraduate — but I really felt like it needed to be done, even if I’m not the ideal person to do it.

As recently as 2005 and 2006, a very noisy law professor here at Macquarie, Dr. Andrew Fraser, was advocating a return to the ‘White Australia’ immigration policy (see Wikipedia on him here). As Wikipedia explains (I don’t want to do the legwork on this one to give it a deeper reading): ‘In July, 2005, he received national attention in Australia by opposing non-European immigration, saying that Australia should withdraw from refugee conventions to avoid becoming “a colony of the Third World” and that African immigration increased crime rates.’ His explanation was a hodge-podge of ‘scientific racism’, discredited eugenic theory, and over-heated rhetoric. The timing was ironic; when I was trying to negotiate the terms of my contract, Macquarie was sealing off its campus because of the furor.

I felt that anthropologists needed to respond to Fraser’s ideas (as well as a lot of other things) with a serious biological anthropology unit on evolution and diversity in humanity. But our department has, of late, been offering almost entirely sociocultural anthropology, as many European and Australian departments do. And that’s how I got to offer a unit, ‘Human Evolution and Diversity,’ for Macquarie first-year students. It’s been going well, but it’s draining me.

Continue reading “Human evolution syllabus”

Grand Rounds at Six

Six until Me is hosting this week’s Grand Rounds, the carnival of medical-related blogging. This edition features a clever card catalog theme, with each card representing a theme. Topics covered include philosophy and psychology, languages, technology, and even funny stuff.

So we have maggot herders as the next big idea, dying of hunger in America (nice non sequitor, no?), dementia and brain fitness, and reflections on marriage and chronic illness.

Brain Tools: Resources for Enhancing Cognitive Performance

There are a raft of products and courses available to the general public who want to improve their cognitive performance. While there are simple methods, like stimulating your brain with cross-word puzzles and brain teasers, there are also more sophisticated techniques often developed by companies or individuals who have made their products available to the public. The links below are some of the products I have found in my online browsing, if you find any in your e-travels, you might like to suggest a few links too. I am not endorsing any of the products but am interested, not necessarily by the products, but by how the products fit into the market they cater for. Many scientists are sceptical, I am curious. Often what works for one person, may not necessarily work for another. This is true not only of placebos, but sometimes of proven therapies and medication.

 

One line of products I certainly would invest in myself (if I had the time and money) would be what could be called “Cognitive Gym” products. Just like any other organ, your brain needs to be exercised regularly to work efficiently. Therapists and clinicians are continually producing new tools to enhance cognitive performance. These tools can be simple memory games, or programs to retrain patterns of thinking. Often “Cognitive Gym” products can be fun and educational. For the moment, with little time to research the resources available (and little money to spend on them), I will stick to playing the piano and listening to my “Learn Portuguese” CDs.

 

Neurofeedback is another type of ‘brain enhancement tool’. It is a non-invasive technique that can be used to enhance normal cognitive performance or to accompany the treatment of neuropsychological and psychiatric disorders such as epilepsy and ADHD.

 

Brain Stimulation can often attract an audience because of the “crazy scientist” appeal (At least to my mind). Techniques, such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, are constantly being developed and have been used to enhance creativity, concentration and attention. Some scientists are iffy about these tools, other people swear by them.

 

LINKS:

COGNITIVE GYM

Challenging Our Minds                             

Brain Gym Exercises for Executives                     

Cognitive Fitness                                        

Brain Bytes Training Programs                  

 

NEURO-FEEDBACK

Dr Diane                                                       

Scientific American Mind                            

Dr Daniel Amen                                           

EEG Spectrum International                                   

 

BRAIN STIMULATION

imusic for the brain                                     

Transparent Corporation                           

 

I’m sure there’s more out there that I have yet to find!