My third edition is coming out in January 2015 !!!
Here is what we are reading today:
“Reporting in a new study published this week in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, James Loughead, PhD, associate professor of Psychiatry, and Caryn Lerman, PhD, a professor of Psychiatry and director of Penn’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Nicotine Addiction, found that smokers who relapsed within seven days from their target quit date had specific disruptions in the brain’s working memory system during abstinence that separated them from the group who successfully quit. Such neural activity–mainly a decrease in the part of the brain that supports self-control and a boost in the area that promotes an “introspective” state–could help distinguish successful quitters from those who fail at an earlier stage and serve as a potentially therapeutic target for novel treatments.”
“Their findings, reported in the Dec. 3 issue of the journal Neuron, suggest that subtle shifts in the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain are linked to superior cognition. Among other things, the frontoparietal network plays a key role in analysis, memory retrieval, abstract thinking and problem-solving, and has the fluidity to adapt according to the task at hand.”
““If correct it certainly pushes back in time the evidence for marking objects in a way that arguably could be considered evidence for symbolic activity,” says Curtis Marean, an archaeologist at Arizona State University, Tempe, who was not involved in the study. But he points out that the Java site, known as Trinil, was excavated in the 1890s using “quite primitive” archaeological methods and that no one has reexamined the location using modern techniques. That means, he says, that “the observation is essentially devoid of context.””
““Our study demonstrated that women’s hormonal contraceptive use interacted with their husbands’ facial attractiveness to predict their marital satisfaction,” said SMU psychologist Andrea L. Meltzer, a co-author on the study.
Specifically, women who met their relatively more attractive husbands while using hormonal contraceptives experienced a boost in marital satisfaction when they discontinued using those contraceptives, said Meltzer, an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.”
““We know that capuchin monkeys share a number of our own economic biases. Our previous work has shown that monkeys are loss-averse, irrational when it comes to dealing with risk, and even prone to rationalizing their own decisions, just like humans,” said Laurie Santos, a psychologist at Yale University and senior author of the study. “But this is one of the first domains we’ve tested in which monkeys show more rational behavior than humans do.”
Rhia Catapano, a former Yale undergraduate who ran the study as part of her senior honors thesis, along with Santos and colleagues designed a series of four experiments to test whether capuchins would prefer higher-priced but equivalent items.”
“To fend off predators, the black-saddled pufferfish (Canthigaster valentini) famously inflates its body with water, much like a person puffing up his cheeks and holding his breath. But unlike the blue-faced human—and in contrast with scientists’ expectations—the pufferfish does not actually stop breathing, researchers report online today in Biology Letters. “
“In the movie The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, Legolas fights some orcs. Yes, Legolas isn’t supposed to be in this movie, but he is. At one point, Legolas takes a breather from fighting and some orc thinks this would be a perfect time to take him out with an arrow. The orc’s arrow flies towards Legolas, but BOOM. The arrow is shot out of it’s trajectory as it is hit from another arrow fired from the wood elf Tauriel.
That’s your plot. Now for the physics.:
“”The findings are important because cognitive ability is among the most important psychological predictors of many important life outcomes, including socioeconomic success and health,” says lead researcher Antti Latvala of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the University of Helsinki in Finland.”
“t’s no secret that many alcoholics are also smokers—the two vices seem to go hand in hand. Many people who have tried to give up drinking have claimed that smoking while doing so makes it easier. Evidence from this new study suggests such people may be fooling themselves.”
26 Comments
susannayu · December 4, 2014 at 5:25 am
I read the article about monkeys not being brand conscious, and I found it so interesting! It amazed me at first that monkeys could even be taught how to buy items and the idea of value. The results of the experiment showed that unlike humans, monkeys aren’t biased towards higher prices for the same item. In our society, many of us associate higher prices with higher quality, or even higher demand. I think this shows how society can shape the way humans think, and therefore shape how the brain processes information. The way that we think now, it’s easy to believe that we were born with these thought processes, when in fact we are influenced so heavily by the environment we live in.
michelle.georgette · December 4, 2014 at 12:19 pm
After reading the article based on contraception and overall happiness with your husbands level of attractiveness, I am beginning to question the many interesting side effects that come along with putting extra hormones into the body. Birth control is known to have physical side effects, but effects in perception are yet another risk they should have on the label. Physical attractiveness is a major aspect of relationships; so learning that the pill may distort perceptions is somewhat worrisome. The article stated that after the female participants were taken of the pill, they were either more satisfied or less satisfied with attractiveness of their husbands. I think this is a relevant issue because many of my peers are taking birth control, and if they learn that perceptions may be skewed due to hormone intake, they may think twice about their significant other.
michelle.georgette · December 4, 2014 at 12:42 pm
The article based on humans being superior is quite accurate. The abilities of our brain are far more advanced than any species on earth. In our world today, we have constant new advances in technology that all are some result of advanced thoughts and ideas coming from our brain. This article spoke about the separated structures and functions of the brain, and I find it interesting that our brain can do amazing things compared to other creatures.
ahoatua · December 4, 2014 at 7:24 pm
I was a little put off by the article “Contraception may change how happy women are with their husbands.” Although the research is clear and provides good evidence, it still did not really make sense to me. It just baffles me that the hormones from the birth control could effect a judgement on facial attractiveness so much so that when stopping the birth control, it has such an impact on satisfaction of the marriage. The way I thought of it is like the woman is in a daze while being with her partner while on birth control, and once she’s off, she snaps her fingers and poof she’s back to reality and suddenly her partner looks SO different, good job if he’s attractive and too bad if he’s not. I just don’t think hormones could distract a person THAT much from the initial facial attractiveness of another human.
hkadera · December 4, 2014 at 10:33 pm
I read the article “Why humans are superior” and found it very interesting. I definitely agree with the findings of the article and it makes sense to me that we as humans use our frontal and parietal lobes in our relational thinking processes. I was interested in the fact that the researchers did not include the ability humans have to include past experience in daily decision making as well as think deeply and learn from past experiences we’ve had in the past. I thought about this because i am in a stage in my life where I need to decide where to go from here and what to do with my life. I have the ability to learn from what my parents did in their careers as well as insert my experiences and decide what I want to do from the information I have gathered. I believe animals different than humans are able to learn from others and reason with themselves on whether they should or shouldnt do something, (much like us) but I am not sure they have the ability to think of these things as deeply. They are unable to turn experiences into deep reasoning and I thought that would be an interesting topic to do more research on.
emilyventimiglia · December 4, 2014 at 11:40 pm
I read the article titled “pufferfish.” I guess it never really crossed my mind before but pufferfish inflate swallowing a ton of water. I find it only natural that the pufferfish continues its breathing while gulping down the water since that is the main source of energy. I do find it interesting, however, that pufferfish take so long to recover. It states in the article that it takes hours for them to return to how they were before. In an open ocean where there are constant threats and dangers, it must be exhausting for the pufferfish to go through these cycles.
emilyventimiglia · December 5, 2014 at 12:30 am
I read the article titled “Son’s intelligence linked to father’s criminal history?” I’m currious as to whether or not the father’s IQs were tested. If the dad’s cognitive intelligence was low as well, the antisocial behavior could be an effect of that lower IQ. Lower intelligence individuals are prone to these criminal habits so for all we know that lower intelligence may have been passed down whether or not the dad partook in criminal activity. It would also be very interesting to see whether the lower intelligence children ended up as criminals when they grew up. The evidence would suggest that they would.
jennatehaney · December 5, 2014 at 9:56 am
I found it really interesting in class when we discussed how being on the pill makes women essentially unable to smell the differing immune systems so to speak of their potential mate, so naturally I was interested to read Kathleen Haughney’s article, “Contraception may change how happy women are with their husbands.” It is fascinating that the use of hormonal contraception can put a damper on so many of our biological processes for choosing a mate. That ones ability to judge the facial attractiveness of their husband is hampered by the small daily hormone intake of birth control pills is news to me. I find it thought provoking that this remains the case for women on hormonal contraception overall, and that the type of hormone blend their pill is made up of does not affect this outcome. It is a little weird how much impact taking one small dose a day can have on ones biological picking system. I guess one can rest assured though that as long as they marry a socially perceived handsome man, their marital satisfaction will get a boost when they go off it, at least there’s one little pro in what seems like a pile of cons in how hormonal contraception can impair our biologically driven mate picking.
anneke_bleeker · December 5, 2014 at 4:52 pm
I found the article “Contraception may change how happy women are with their husbands,” to be very interesting. I would have never thought that having more hormones in a woman’s body would weaken their preferences for facial attractiveness in their partners. The study states that women who stopped taking birth control after marriage with less attractive husbands, tended to have less marital satisfaction. What I though was weird is that it doesn’t work backwards–meaning, if a woman starts taking hormonal contraceptives after marriage there was no effect. This is somewhat worrisome to think that women may be somewhat fooled by their own brain to think their husband is more attractive, and may be less satisfied once stopping hormonal contraception.
eengelsgaard · December 5, 2014 at 5:42 pm
I read the article “Scientists Detect Brain Network That Gives Humans Superior Reasoning Skills” and I think that it is fascinating that the network of human brains give us as a species superior reasoning skills than any other type of species. I really found the end of the article particularly interesting with the whole evolutionary evolvement of our brain. It really differentiates us with primates, even though it has been said that we evolved from them, not to mention that primates share many similarities to us, being that they are our closest ancestors.
eengelsgaard · December 5, 2014 at 6:10 pm
I also read “Etchings on a 500,000-year-old shell appear to have been made by human ancestor”. I really loved this article. Its amazing to find evidence of humans on a simple shell that is 500,000 years old! It still amazes me that our race has been on this Earth for that long. It is because of findings like this that we can learn more about are ancestors that was on this Earth long before we were. I agree with what they said at the end of this article on finding out whether or not the etching is simply doodling or something more symbolic.
eengelsgaard · December 5, 2014 at 6:10 pm
I also read “Etchings on a 500,000-year-old shell appear to have been made by human ancestor”. I really loved this article. Its amazing to find evidence of humans on a simple shell that is 500,000 years old! It still amazes me that our race has been on this Earth for that long. It is because of findings like this that we can learn more about are ancestors that was on this Earth long before we were. I agree with what they said at the end of this article on finding out whether or not the etching is simply doodling or something more symbolic.
sabrinayoukhane · December 5, 2014 at 8:26 pm
I read the article “Contraception May Change How Happy Women are with their Husbands.” I found this article very interesting because I would have never even thought that contraceptives have anything to do with finding people attractive or not. It is obvious that taking contraceptives adjusts your hormones, but then I also didn’t really consider that hormones and finding somebody attractive are linked together. The most interesting part of the article was that when women started taking contraceptives after marriage, it has no effect of level of attractiveness of their spouses.
sabrinayoukhane · December 5, 2014 at 8:41 pm
I also read the article “Brain Activity after Smokers Quit Predicts Chances of Relapsing.” I found this article most interesting because I have tried for countless months to help one of my friends quit smoking and after a few days he always relapses. I like how now after reading this article, I have a better understanding of why he may be relapsing and what is going on in his and everyone else’s brains who aren’t able to quit smoking successfully.
hannahjoslin · December 5, 2014 at 8:42 pm
I was not aware at all of these side effects of hormonal contraceptives and it is interesting to know that they can affect a woman’s life in such a way– in terms of marital satisfaction as well as the effects of choosing a partner while on contraceptives versus off.
To pose a question–should this effect be part of hormonal contraceptives warning labels? After all, while it is a woman’s independent choice to take hormonal contraceptives, it may be considered ethical to disclose the fact that it affects the woman’s judgement in a way.
Miamorr8 · December 5, 2014 at 9:12 pm
I read the “Do I Still Look Handsome to You?” article. The findings are very strange, but they do make sense. I remember Dr. Freberg also mentioned in class once, that sense of smell is also altered in women who were on an oral contraceptive prior to marriage and then discontinued use. As in, once women went off the pill, their partners didn’t smell as good to them. This indicates that taking hormones such as contraceptives can disturb our body’s natural way of selecting a mate. With that being said, this article had a similar message. Facial attractiveness is important to us biologically because it can represent their health, helping us determine whether or not this person could produce genetically healthy offspring. If these hormones disrupt that biological process, then of course someone who is deemed “less attractive” will be seen that way once hormone usage is discontinued. Whereas, if a man is “good looking,” then they will still have those genetically healthy facial features after a woman goes off the pill.
Miamorr8 · December 5, 2014 at 9:21 pm
I also found the article under “Smoking and Drinking” interesting. This makes sense because often one addition can trigger another. If you are used to being able to appease two addictions at once and then try to quit one of them, then partaking in the other one is just going to remind you of the one that you are trying to quit. This can be especially difficult when the addictions that your body also has muscle memory for. If you usually have a drink in your hand while you smoke and then try to stop drinking, your empty hand is going to constantly remind you that something is missing while you are smoking. I did find it interesting that they said it’s better to quit smoking before quitting drinking though, I previously thought either order would be equally as hard.
ACapanna · December 5, 2014 at 9:39 pm
I especially enjoyed reading the article about Tauriel shooting an orc’s arrow out of the air to save Legolas in The Hobbit. The article goes to show that math and science can be demonstrated in a way that is interesting and engaging to students.
I wonder if the same results would be found for daughters as were found for sons in the research linking a child’s intelligence with their father’s criminal activity. Also, of course, there are mothers who sometimes have criminal histories, and that can be studied as well. I feel really sorry for these kids who grow up with their parent incarcerated. It is sad that on top of the emotional and economic effects that they have to deal with, they also have cognitive issues to worry about. I wouldn’t be opposed to programs that offer small incentives to encourage certain people to undergo sterilization.
sarahdelossantos · December 5, 2014 at 9:46 pm
I read the article about monkeys being immune from expensive branding and found it very interesting. I’ve seen related studies where food critics who are served McDonald’s burgers labeled as “organic” and “artisan” claim to be able to taste the “fresher” and “higher quality” ingredients. It seems like we not only associate higher price but also certain buzzwords with higher quality. This might be because unlike humans, monkeys aren’t conscious of the symbolism behind higher prices. Humans might be inclined to call a pricier item higher quality because they want to be recognized by peers as having “good taste” and “knowing value”. Not many humans would want to admit that they don’t know the difference between fine artisanal wine and store-brand discount wine! It may also have to do with value bias… if someone pays a higher price for a medicine, they don’t want to admit that it works just as well as a lower-priced item, because that would be admitting they wasted their own money! Monkeys, I supposed, don’t have the same self-consciousness. I am a sociology major and this study confirms the common sociological belief that money and consumerism is purely a social construct.
sarahdelossantos · December 5, 2014 at 9:52 pm
I read the article about contraception and marital satisfaction and was quite amused with the results. Does this mean that hormonal contraception causes women to “underestimate” male attractieness, but simultaneously “overestimate” male attractiveness as well? It is reassuring however that beginning hormonal contraceptives after marriage doesn’t affect satisfaction. This is very pertinent to college-age women, many of whom are on hormonal birth control. College is deemed a common time to meet one’s future partner, meaning that the many college women currently on hormonal birth control may experience these same results in their futures!
ckclausen · December 5, 2014 at 11:44 pm
I read “Study shows smoking cigarettes makes quitting drinking harder” and although it doesn’t sound too surprising, I did not know that many alcoholics smoked cigarettes as well. When the article said that those who try to give up drinking find it easier when they have a cigarette addiction as well, even though this is not exactly true, it seems like it would make some sense. If someone is giving up one addiction, at least they have something else to fall back on even though it isn’t healthy at all either. Like the article says, it would be easier to quit drinking if you quit smoking first since if you can do that, you can overcome other obstacles, like drinking, afterwards.
ckclausen · December 5, 2014 at 11:57 pm
The biology of hormones is already so complex and the article, “Contraception may change how happy women are with their husbands,” made it even more complicated. It’s very odd that hormonal contraceptives can have such an effect on women that makes them determine the physical attractiveness of their partner. In class we heard about the immune system and how birth control can prevent the ability for us to smell our partner’s scent, and now there is this. I wonder how big of an impact the hormonal contraceptives have on a woman’s perception of her husband’s appearance. I would think that if you are married to the person, it should not make a huge difference whether you are on birth control or not.
allison.ying · December 5, 2014 at 11:58 pm
I read the article about contraception use. It scares me to think that the use of birth control can affect your perception and what is important to you. These kind of effects make me want to avoid taking anything that messes with my hormones.
astieber · January 7, 2015 at 10:44 pm
I read the article “Brain Activity After Smokers Quit Predicts Chances of Relapsing” and found it to be quite a compelling read. At first I thought it strange that working memory would be so important in being able to predict whether or not someone would be able to quit smoking, but it makes sense. It is the part of the brain associated with staying focused and completing tasks, so if someone has a deficit in that area of the brain they would probably have a harder time focusing on completing the task of quitting. Also people who are more impulsive tend to be more likely to become addicted to substances such as tobacco, which may have a part in it as well. If someone was more concerned with instant gratification, quitting smoking would be extra challenging because of the impulsiveness they possess. My sister is a decently heavy smoker, and i’m hoping that she’s not one of those individuals with decreased function in her left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex!
rspatric · January 25, 2015 at 12:24 pm
I read the article on how contraception effects how women feel about their partner’s looks. It makes sense that when you are on the pill a partners fitness would be less important, because you are not trying to have a baby. I would like to learn more about what makes us feel physical attraction, and why different people are attracted to different characteristics. Are we only attracted to those we instinctually see as a strong fit mate? How much does society influence us with stigmas of conventional beauty in the media?
najavier · March 9, 2015 at 10:12 pm
Just like the scientists’ expectations, when I see classic pictures of an enlarged pufferfish (exaggerated pursed lips, cheeks expanded, body like a bowling ball), I would also think they are holding their breath rather than continuously breathing. This is such a cool discovery because the pufferfish have an awesome defense mechanism against predators. Since researchers did find that the pufferfish’s natural protection is taxing on their bodies, I wonder how long they can sustain that defensive state? What conditions do their bodies have to be in to be able to defend themselves? Overall, that’s great that the pufferfish can have an advantage over other pufferfish-eating organisms and not having to be completely uncomfortable while doing so.