See you at WPA this year!!
Here’s what we are reading today:
““It is beautiful new work,” which “brings into light what’s happening in the early stage of the disease,” says Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroscientist at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville.
Most new Alzheimer’s drugs aim to eliminate β amyloid, a protein that forms telltale sticky plaques around neurons in people with the disease. Those with Alzheimer’s tend to have more of these deposits in their brains than do healthy people, yet more plaques don’t always mean more severe symptoms such as memory loss or poor attention, says Beth Stevens of Boston Children’s Hospital, who led the new work.”
“In two new studies, researchers from Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences have discovered that the stress of short-term nutritional deprivation as larvae (baby bees) actually makes honey bees more resilient to starvation as adults.
“Surprisingly, we found that short-term starvation in the larval stage makes adult honey bees more adaptive to adult starvation. This suggests that they have an anticipatory mechanism like solitary organisms do,” said Ying Wang, assistant research professor with the school and lead author of the two investigations. Wang said they found evidence of this mechanism in several areas such as behavior, endocrine physiology, metabolism and gene regulation.”
“”I find it kind of amazing when we see these epigenetic signals in newborns, from in utero exposure, lighting up the same genes as an adult’s own cigarette smoking. There’s a lot of overlap,” says co-senior author Stephanie London, an epidemiologist and physician at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health. “This is a blood-borne exposure to smoking—the fetus isn’t breathing it, but many of the same things are going to be passing through the placenta.””
“The research, led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Mark Mills, revealed that negativity bias — where greater weight in our cognitive processes is given to negative information over positive or neutral information — is stronger in political conservatives and that the negativity bias transfers to how well they remember stimuli.”
“Dogs performed like the rhesus monkeys! In 67% of the trials, dogs looked longer at the congruent face, the expression matching the vocalization. When it comes to happy and angry dog faces — and their corresponding sounds — dogs in this study integrated congruent signals. ”
““A site like Point Rosee has the potential to reveal what that initial wave of Norse colonization looked like not only for Newfoundland but for the rest of the North Atlantic,” says Bolender.”
27 Comments
bailey_arthur · April 9, 2016 at 3:37 pm
The Article, “How Different are Liberals and Conservatives Psychologically” had very interesting findings. I understood that people differed in ideologies in the two groups, but I usually thought those differences were caused mainly by environmental differences such as socioeconomic status. After reading this article, I realize that a person’s biology actually can play a factor in creating ideologies that differ. The idea that conservatives had a negative bias really was mind-boggling because you can also track it neurologically. To be able to basically see someone’s political positions in their brain is something that before this article seemed impossible. To me, this type of research really is interesting because it reminds you how important others’ ideologies can be and that we should all understand that these ideologies are not just from environmental differences, but also biological differences.
estrickf · April 14, 2016 at 12:43 pm
The article, “More on Possible Causes for Alzheimer’s” introduces a good discussion on what should be done about the many failed attempts to cure or prevent Alzheimer’s disease. The initial statistic that “More than 99% of clinical trials for Alzheimer’s drugs have failed” is very concerning and should inspire more researchers to question why that is the case. Maybe the brain plaque caused by beta amyloid buildup is only a side effect of the disease and not the cause. Maybe they have been going after the wrong targets. If there is currently a lot of data that suggest microglia are behind the over-eating of synapses, I think it would be worthwhile to compare the microglia of those with Alzheimer’s and those with normal brain functioning. This topic could be pressed further because the onset of Alzheimer’s disease is an unfortunate one that may not be getting the attention it should by pharmaceutical companies.
hsaner · April 16, 2016 at 4:38 pm
I read “Mom’s smoking alters fetal DNA”, which made me think of my own situation; my own mother has smoked her whole life and luckily didn’t smoke during her pregnancies of me and my siblings. To have scientific evidence than smoking while pregnant can lead to problems in lung and nervous system development, smoking-related cancers, and birth defects such as cleft lip and palate, is enlightening and saddening. It also raises the question of the effect of air pollution/smog on prenatal development and how harmful it can be to a fetus. While the results of this study aren’t uplifting, hopefully it will act as more incentive for expectant mothers to stop smoking for the sake of their unborn babies.
arklipp · April 23, 2016 at 3:33 pm
It is amazing to me that with all of this information and analysis on the effects of drugs on fetuses that some mothers think that “just a little is okay”. There is so much study on what the effects of just the presence of some of these chemicals do to the development, that it would be hard to justify against the science. I agree with what you stated in class about medicating mothers the genetic effects of drugs that it is better to just stay away from all of those factors while a human being is in the midst of development!
hannahdavis · April 23, 2016 at 8:55 pm
I also read “Mom’s smoking alters fetal DNA” and was really intrigued that those toxins could so easily travel through the placenta and affect the developing fetus enough to alter the DNA. This can also raise questions about chewing tobacco and other various drugs that have similar ingredients. Vitamin supplements during pregnancy are vital to the fetus’s development, so I can’t imagine the detrimental impact addictive drugs and their carcinogens have. The fact that smoking alone can alter lung and nervous system development, and even cancers and cleft palate is honestly horrifying. It is amazing that research like this can help us discover better standards for health especially during pregnancy. Another interesting study would be if this child would be more likely become addicted to tobacco or not after their DNA is changed by it.
michellesandler · April 28, 2016 at 11:01 pm
The article on Alzheimer and a new discovery that has been made regarding a potential cause of the disease was an interesting read. After 99% of clinical trials for Alzheimer’s drugs failing, a new discovery could help explain why they did not work in the first place and can eventually lead to an effective treatment that could save many lives. This discovery could possibly be a new start to figuring out ways to treat Alzheimers and could possibly lead to discovering ways to prevent this disease before it takes effect. Microglia eating away at synapses when they’re not supposed to in people with Alzheimer’s is an amazing find that gives me hope in finding treatment and even figuring out prevention measures for people that have a family history of Alzheimer’s.
Makayla Riggs · May 2, 2016 at 7:53 pm
The reading about the new findings on Alzheimers was very interesting. My grandpa who is very close to me, was diagnosed a year and a half ago and while a cure may be too late for him, I truly hope they can find a solution to end this disease. Losing one’s memories I think is the most terrible thing because our memories are what build us into the individuals we are. I think they are really onto something and it would be interesting to see how consistently we could predict the onset of Alzheimers at an early age and work on stopping it before its onset.
hannahdavis · May 5, 2016 at 9:59 pm
The article on differing political view and the relation to the brain raises a lot of curious follow-up questions for me. I know there are a lot of studies done on the background of people’s political views and what factors correlate. It is common to see family, socioeconomic status, religious beliefs, location, education level,and race and how they correlate to differing parties. However, I have never even thought of emotion and responses playing a role in this topic. A good question to ask is does this negativity bias contribute to the political view or does the political view contribute to the difference in negativity bias? Another interesting study would be to find out which issues or views of that certain political party relate to having which type of emotional bias. Maybe there are even more predispositions to a certain party such as temperament or other biological factors.
lwickwir · May 8, 2016 at 8:23 pm
I found the article about the emotions of your dog really interesting. I have a dog at home who is very expressive with his ears, eyes, body position, body activity, and barking/whining. Everything makes has a different response for him. But dogs definitely have emotional recognition from the faces of others dogs, and other humans. It’s obvious when you yell at your dog, he/she knows your mad and they give you that cute sorry face, when you cry, he/she knows because they come up to you and lick you, and when you’re happy, he/she knows because they’ll become happy with you.
hsaner · May 12, 2016 at 7:02 pm
I found the article regarding the effect of starvation on bees reassuring, which I was not expecting! I was surprised that the short term starvation actually made the bees more resilient. The results that they could reduce their metabolic rate, maintain their blood sugar levels, and use other fuels faster than the control bees during starvation is especially encouraging in light of the recent spike in bee deaths. It is so important that bees do not become endangered because of how it will negatively impact our food production and ecosystem in general. Hopefully more experiments will be held in order to find ways to both the increase the bee population and keep the current population alive and well, possibly based off of the results of this research.
jaoliva@calpoly.edu · May 14, 2016 at 5:45 pm
I read the article “the emotions of your dog”, the topic discussed in the reading is something I have always wondered about. I feel like anyone who has ever owned a dog knows that they clearly understand some emotions. From personal experience I know that when ever I was having a bad day my dog would try extra hard to distract and even entertain me. According to this article both monkeys and dogs share a level of emotional understanding however. It would’ve been interesting to see if other domestic animals shared that in common with dogs. I really enjoyed reading this article.
hannahdavis · May 14, 2016 at 9:01 pm
I read ” the emotions of your dog”. I found this study very interesting since everyone loves dogs as pets for their companionship and loyalty and have always wondered about their mental capabilities. There are numerous stories telling about how someone’s dog saved their life, traveled many miles to find their owner, and more. It makes sense that animals have this demonstration of audio-visual integration in an animal vocal communication system because of the way they behave to human emotion. In my own personal experience my dogs can recognize when I am upset and will get on my bed to comfort me. It is just amazing that they can do this type of emotional recognition in humans since they are entirely unrelated species. It makes a lot more sense in terms of the rhesus monkey from an evolutionary standpoint but this may be it is due to the domestication of dogs. Either way, I love how dogs are able to recognize positive and negative emotion.
annahempill · May 15, 2016 at 2:56 pm
I read the article “Alzheimer’s may be caused by haywire immune system eating brain connections” which was about new evidence about the cause/treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. I thought that it was interesting that it was believed that the plaque was what was causing the neurons to stop firing when actually it is the microglia eating away at parts it is not supposed to eat before the plaque even develops. I hope that more research into the idea that it is a mixture of a couple phenomena that could be contributing to the disease will help to find a prevention method or cure to Alzheimers.
annahempill · May 15, 2016 at 3:13 pm
I read the article, “Why The Long Look, Dog” about why dogs (an a couple other animal examples) look at something for a longer amount of time than other things. I thought that it was interesting that dogs and monkeys looked longer at the expressions that matched the noise while horses looked longer at things that don’t match what they hear. I would think animals would look longer at something when they are confused or when it doesn’t match up like the horses did. My dog stares at me for a long time with sad eyes when he wants a treat, but I think he does it because he knows that if he stares at me and looks sad for long enough, then I will cave and give him a treat for no reason.
apivetti · May 16, 2016 at 10:48 am
I found “The Emotions of your Dog” to be an extremely interesting article. I often times do wonder if my yellow lab, Duke, has emotions. Measuring the time a dog looks at a particular image when matched with a sound is a very creative way to determine whether the animal attributes expression with tone. Seeing as the dogs did stare longer at the aggressive picture when exposed to an aggressive sound and vice versa with the happy image, we can better understand that dogs are capable of emotions to an extent. I would love to look further into this idea, because although this experiment concluded dogs do have emotions, it gives no insight as to how, when, and the intensity of such emotions.
mackenziemorrison1 · May 16, 2016 at 6:44 pm
I read “The Emotions of Your Dog”. I found this very interesting, and more than because I am a huge dog lover as well as have one of my own. As silly as it seems, there are times that I feel that I can tell the emotion my dog is feeling, and I talk of him as I would another human. It is an innate thing that dogs recognize other dogs’ emotions and facial expressions. That is something they need to help aid in survival and to know what other dogs they can trust or not trust. That is something that all animals have and use especially if they are in the wild. As animals have gotten more domesticated, they have learned to recognize this in humans. Most are able to recognize if a human is happy, upset, mad, or even sad. They have altered this innate ability to apply to humans as they are now a more prominent influence on their life. I was not completely surprised that results show that the monkeys and dogs looked longer at angry faces rather than the happy ones. I thought of it from my perspective, if I was walking around and saw someone smile at me, I would think thats nice and keep going about my day. Compared to if I was walking around and saw someone give me an angry expression, I would spend more time focused on them to decide if they are a potential threat to myself or not. This is an aspect that might aid in the reason humans and dogs have such great connections. Really great read and information to think more about our four legged companions.
Bcrowley712 · May 17, 2016 at 7:24 am
The article about the emotions of a dog is super interesting! I always talk to my dog like it is a human, and it is cool to think that when i have a happy face or an angry face they can sense that. That also would come in handy for predation and prey purposes, because dogs can then sense when a dog might attack, or when a dog is happy to see another dog. It is interesting to me to see how different animals communicate and respond towards one another.
clairep · May 18, 2016 at 4:08 pm
I chose to read the article on “the emotions of your dog”, as I come from a family where our pets are treated as family — I have an Australian Shepherd that I consider very emotionally intelligent. I found it very interesting (as well as comforting) to learn that dogs actually have a considerable level of emotional competence as far as recognizing facial expressions goes, seeing as how we as humans try to convey emotional meaning to them on a regular basis. It would be interesting to further examine how emotional intelligence varies among dogs and how that affects both their interspecies and intraspecies relationships. Although the existing experiment tested the dog’s recognition of other dog faces, I would still like to think that this higher level understanding somewhat contributes to the title of dogs as “man’s best friend”. Thanks for sharing!
alexandrabush · May 31, 2016 at 12:37 pm
I found it very interesting that a person’s biology plays a role in their ideology and political views. I had always believed it to be simply caused by nature and not nurture. I thought a person’s socioeconomic status, environment, and parent’s views were what caused one’s ideology. Also, my grandmother smoked throughout her pregnancy with my dad which scares me for his health. I also wonder how that affects me. Does my grandmother’s smoking affect my risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease?
kaylabakhshi · June 1, 2016 at 3:58 pm
The article “Emotions of your dog” was extremely interesting, especially because I have always wondered what my dog is thinking. Yes, he whines, he stares, he tilts his head, and I always feel like I might have an idea of what he is feeling, but you really never know. I always knew dog’s were very smart, so it makes sense that they have the ability to match the correct noise with the expression. Whenever I am sad, my dog runs to me and starts licking me to make me feel better. They are quite the animals, and I hope to see more research on how their brains work.
Chan.Jayme · June 1, 2016 at 9:42 pm
RE: Mom’s smoking alters fetal DNA
After taking general psych, developmental psych, and now biopsychology, I’ve noticed this fact to repeat itself over and over again. With this repetition, it makes it even more significant to keep this in mind. Women who smoke especially during pregnancy need to be educated on this if they want a healthy baby. Its pretty scary how woman have to watch themselves os carefully for the whole 9 months, any craving they have they have to think about how it will affect the baby since nutrients as well as toxins travel to the placenta so quickly. This was an interesting article overall.
Chan.Jayme · June 1, 2016 at 9:47 pm
RE: The emotions of your dog
This article was extremely interesting! I never had a dog as my own but after reading this article, I am amazed at how dogs express emotions like this. That saying “dogs are smarter than people” is sort of emanating truth through this article. Just like how humans have universal facial expressions, dogs reactions seem to be similar in that sense. Those pictures were also very adorable. The fact that dogs can be so photogenic and expressive is really cool to me.
Chan.Jayme · June 1, 2016 at 9:53 pm
RE: more on possible causes of Alzheimers
Through the many advancements our world has been making on medicine, it is good to know that there is hope to finding a specific cause for Alzheimers. Doctors have been working long and hard and at first with the 99% of clinical trials of failing, they are finally on to something. It’s encouraging because many families have been affected by this disease but its slightly relieving to hear that it is not completely hopeless. Starting here with this discovery of a cause may lead to many doors that open into the possible preventions or treatments.
KarinaCain · June 2, 2016 at 12:03 pm
It was interesting to read about the psychological differences between liberals and conservative. Prior to reading the article, I never thought that there were biological processes involved in people’s political views. As many other people do, I alway believed that nurture, not nature, was the prime reason for people’s views. I never knew that conservatives are more likely to remember things that are negative.I found it interesting to consider this when thinking about liberal and conservative peoples’ actions. Including those of people who are close to me.
annahempill · June 3, 2016 at 2:29 pm
RE: How Different are Liberals and Conservatives
Political debates are one of the most heated, especially with the election coming up. Many factors contribute to whether a person identifies as a Liberal or a Conservative. It was interesting to read that there is research on the psychological differences between Conservatives and Liberals. It was reported that Conservatives remember things that evoke negative emotions more, whereas Liberals remember things that evoke positive emotions more. I found it very interesting to read that the way a person processes emotion can have a big impact on their political beliefs.
LaurenTaylor · December 6, 2016 at 8:17 pm
I thought it was so interesting, and such a good idea, for researchers to study the psychological differences in conservatives and liberals. I have never really heard of any studies on this before, but I think a lot of people would find experiments about this very interesting. Further research should be done in many different areas of this topic. I was surprised that conservatives were more likely to remember things that evoked negative emotion, as opposed to liberals. I didn’t think there would really be a significant difference between the two, but apparently there is. I may look up more studies on this topic because I find it very fascinating.
kayleeroe · April 24, 2017 at 5:35 pm
I read the article, “Why the Long Look, Dog?”. I found this study very interesting because it addresses an aspect of dogs that I did not know existed. My family and I have always said that we wish our dog could speak to us and that we could communicate with him as well. We have noticed that dogs get excited when the people around them are excited, but have never realized that they may actually be able to read our expressions and understand what they mean. Now knowing that dogs truly can understand facial expressions paired with an emotion, I will be more conscious around my dog and others to try to see this first hand!