|
6d7e079
|
The standard, convincing explanation for the link is that RWA provides simple answers, ideal for people with poor abstract reasoning skills.
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
25b73f8
|
you asked amygdala experts what behavior their favorite brain structure brings to mind, "aggression" wouldn't top their list. It would be fear and anxiety."
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
b8b73a2
|
Research shows that rejecting an offer is an emotional decision, triggered by anger at a lousy offer and the desire to punish. The
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
9199011
|
Instead, these findings suggest that the amygdala injects implicit distrust and vigilance into social decision making.23 All thanks to learning. In the words of the authors of the study, "The generosity in the trust game of our BLA-damaged subjects might be considered pathological altruism, in the sense that inborn altruistic behaviors have not, due to BLA damage, been un-learned through negative social experience." In other words, the defa..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
724e9f0
|
First, can fetal or childhood exposure to synthetic glucocorticoids have lifelong, adverse effects? Glucocorticoids (such as hydrocortisone) are prescribed in vast amounts, because of their immunosuppressive or anti-inflammatory effects. During pregnancy, they are administered to women with certain endocrine disorders or who are at risk for delivering preterm. Heavy administration of them during pregnancy has been reported to result in chil..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
84209af
|
Como he llegado a esto? ?Cuando se volvio tan importante para mi el hecho de pisar terreno solido y familiar? ?Como he llegado a convertirme en uno de esos tipos que compran antologias tipo "lo mejor de" que anuncia en la television a altas horas de la noche?"
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
4426efe
|
Queria probar si existen ciertas ventanas temporales de maduracion netamente definidas durante las cuales formamos nuestros gustos culturales (...) en concreto, si existe una edad determinada a la que las ventanas de apertura se cierran por completo. Mientras un CD con exitos de Wagner tocados con ukelele atronaba junto a mi oficina, me preguntaba: ?cuando se forman nuestros gustos musicales y cuando dejamos de estar abiertos a escuchar nu..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
d5f9c3e
|
El patron de la apertura a la experiencia ya habia sido estudiado. (...) Una caracteristica era la juventud asociada al proceso creativo. Algunas profesiones se construyen exclusivamente sobre los avances creativos de ninos prodigio (como por ejemplo, las matematicas). Otras son menos extremas del mismo patron: el numero de melodias anuales de un compositor, los poemas de un poeta, los descubrimientos nuevos de un cientifico marcan un decli..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
d65bfae
|
Los humanos suelen sobrevalorar cualquier grupo del que formen parte y demonizar al grupo de fuera. Los grupos excluyentes suelen estar definidos por la edad, asi que cuando tienes 15 anos un deseo clave que tanto tu como tus companeros teneis es que quede lo bastante claro que no os pareceis en nada a cualquier grupo de edad anterior a vosotros. (...) Un cuarto de siglo despues la misma sensacion de identificarte con tu generacion hace que..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
6753cd4
|
Quizas estaba haciendo la pregunta equivocada: no deberia ser por que tendemos a desdenar lo nuevo a medida que nos hacemos viejos, sino por que, a medida que envejecemos, ansiamos lo familiar. Hay una etapa de la vida en la que los ninos se vuelven locos por la repeticion, les da placer darse cuenta de que empiezan a controlar las reglas. Quizas el placer en el extremo opuesto de la vida sea darse cuenta de que las reglas siguen estando a..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
ccc974d
|
By using two elephants to do the job, damage will occur just because of how large, lumbering, and unsubtle elephants are. They squash the flowers in the process of entering the playground, they strew leftovers and garbage all over the place from the frequent snacks they must eat while balancing the seesaw, they wear out the seesaw faster, and so on. This is equivalent to a pattern of stress-related disease that will run through many of the ..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
421be79
|
Cuando Igor Stravinsky yacia en su lecho de muerte, golpeaba repetidamente su anillo contra el metal de la barandilla de su cama de hospital y, cada vez que lo hacia, alarmaba a su mujer con el sonido. Al final, un poco molesta, le pregunto por que lo hacia si sabia que ella seguia alli. "Pero quiero estar seguro de que yo todavia sigo aqui", contesto. Es posible que la repeticion y el consuelo de atravesar terreno solido y conocido sea nue..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
d5a6cac
|
Lo cierto es que al volverse nuestra mente mas estrecha de miras, menos permeable a la novedad, y al glorificar la repeticion, nos estamos empobreciendo. Que impactante descubrir que al llegar a los 40 ya te han banado en bronce y colocado en la repisa de la chimenea, que ya existen instituciones sociales como las emisoras de radio de melodias ya pasadas de moda, cuya mera existencia te confirma que ya no estas donde esta la cultura. Si ahi..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
ce41a4f
|
Subliminal cuing and unconscious priming influence numerous behaviors unrelated to this book. People think potato chips taste better when hearing crunching sounds. We like a neutral stimulus more if, just before seeing it, a picture of a smiling face is flashed for a twentieth of a second. The more expensive a supposed (placebo) painkiller, the more effective people report the placebo to be. Ask subjects their favorite detergent; if they've..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
0ba1459
|
Thus, over the course of seconds sensory cues can shape your behavior unconsciously.
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
766faaf
|
This addition produces a two-by-two matrix: parenting is authoritative (high demand, high responsiveness), authoritarian (high demand, low responsiveness), permissive (low demand, high responsiveness), or neglectful (low demand, low responsiveness).
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
1409f4d
|
A genetic/neurochemical disorder requiring a strong environmental trigger whose characteristic manifestation is an inability to appreciate sunsets. Depression
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
50cae97
|
Schultz's group has shown that the magnitude of an anticipatory dopamine rise reflects two variables. First is the size of the anticipated reward. A monkey has learned that a light
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
70776a0
|
Knutson's group shows that the greater the probability of reward, the more activation in the medial PFC.96 But switches from 50 to 25 percent and from 50 to 75 percent both reduce the magnitude of uncertainty. And the secondary rise of dopamine for a 25 or 75 percent likelihood of reward is smaller than for 50 percent. Thus, anticipatory dopamine release peaks with the greatest uncertainty as to whether a reward will occur.fn49 Interestingl..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
1c015da
|
Logically, gambling shouldn't evoke much anticipatory dopamine, given the astronomical odds against winning. But the behavioral engineering--the 24-7 activity and lack of time cues, the cheap alcohol pickling fronto-cortical judgment, the manipulations to make you feel like today is your lucky day--distorts and shifts the perception of the odds into a range where dopamine pours out and, oh, why not, let's try again.
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
c33574b
|
So dopamine is more about anticipation of reward than about reward itself.
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
ff05f99
|
This is central to understanding the nature of motivation, as well as its failures (e.g., during depression, where there is inhibition of dopamine signaling thanks to stress, or in anxiety, where such inhibition is caused by projections from the amygdala).100 It also tells us about the source of the frontocortical power behind willpower. In a task where one chooses between an immediate and a (larger) delayed reward, contemplating the immedi..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
bc0ac50
|
Thus, shorter refractory periods mean a higher rate of action potentials. So is testosterone causing action potentials in these neurons? No. It's causing them to fire at a faster rate if they are stimulated by something else. Similarly, testosterone increases amygdala response to angry faces, but not to other sorts.
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
4214b10
|
someone's hand being poked with a needle, and subjects have an "isomorphic sensorimotor" response--hands tense in empathy. Among both whites and blacks, the response is blunted for other-race hands; the more the implicit racism, the more blunting. Similarly, among subjects of both races, there's more activation of the (emotional) medial PFC when considering misfortune befalling a member of their own race than of another race." --
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
affd79e
|
Justo cuando pensabamos que la pelea habia terminado, va y me saca el refrito sin sentido de algo que paso hace anos". ?Y que podemos hacer ante todo esto? ?Como comercializar la 'Guia William James' de autoayuda en las relaciones personales? De una forma obvia. Intentando contrarrestar esa locomotora con mente propia en que se convierte el sistema nervioso autonomo. ?Como hacerlo? (...) Antes de contestarlo, tiene que respirar profundament..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
04e24fc
|
Diallo, a West African immigrant in New York, matched a description of a rapist. Four white officers questioned him, and when the unarmed Diallo started to pull out his wallet, they decided it was a gun and fired forty-one shots. The underlying neurobiology concerns "event-related potentials" (ERPs), which are stimulus-induced changes in electrical activity of the brain (as assessed by EEG--electroencephalography). Threatening faces produce..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
513715c
|
Finally, for the same criminal conviction, the more stereotypically Af-rican a black individual's facial features, the longer the sentence.15 In contrast, juries view black (but not white) male defendants more favorably if they're wearing big, clunky glasses; some defense attorneys even exploit this "nerd defense" by accessorizing their clients with fake glasses, and prosecuting attorneys ask whether those dorky glasses are real. In other w..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
c899b96
|
Remarkably, the size of neurons' dendritic trees in the hippocampus expands and contracts like an accordion throughout a female rat's ovulatory cycle, with the size (and her cognitive skills) peaking when estrogen peaks.fn6 Thus, neurons can form new dendritic branches and spines, increasing the size of their dendritic tree or, in other circumstances, do the opposite; hormones frequently mediate these effects.
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
463d9dd
|
The sensory cortex and visual cortex are far away from each other. How do those tactile neurons "know" (a) that there's vacant property in the visual cortex; (b) that hooking up with those unoccupied neurons helps turn fingertip information into "reading"; and (c) how to send axonal projections to this new cortical continent? All are matters of ongoing research."
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
b45b5ca
|
El problema no era su trabajo, que me parecia magnifico, sino su gusto musical. (...) Del walkman salia a todo volumen una musica horrenda de cualquiera de esos grupos que los veinteaneros suelen escuchar. Mientras que pudiera probarse cientificamente que su musica era inferior a lo que escuchabamos los de mi generacion, todo estaba bien (...) Sonic Youth durante horas, y, de repente, el Beethoven tardio. Despues, Grand Ole Opry, catos greg..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
0f631f2
|
Knowledge emerged about synapses, neurotransmitter-ology was born, and this idea was modified--a new memory requires the formation of a new synapse, a new connection between an axon terminal and a dendritic spine.
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
d8164e7
|
There's support for the idea--three of my favorites are that (a) forcing depressed people to smile makes them feel better; (b) instructing people to take on a more "dominant" posture makes them feel more so (lowers stress hormone levels); and (c) muscle relaxants decrease"
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
8d37ebf
|
EVOLUTION RESTS ON three steps: (a) certain biological traits are inherited by genetic means; (b) mutations and gene recombination produce variation in those traits; (c) some of those variants confer more "fitness" than others. Given those conditions, over time the frequency of more "fit" gene variants increases in a population."
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
2d1ea07
|
Moreover, when people are hungry, they become less charitable and more aggressive (e.g., choosing more severe punishment for an opponent in a game).fn7 There's
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
af3f8b1
|
evolution is about reproduction, passing on copies of genes.
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
68ec6f3
|
The difference between survival and reproduction is shown with "antagonistic pleiotropy," referring to traits that increase reproductive fitness early in life yet decrease life span. For example, primates' prostates have high metabolic rates, enhancing sperm motility. Upside: enhanced fertility; downside: increased risk of prostate cancer. Antagonistic pleiotropy occurs dramatically in salmon, who epically journey to their spawning grounds ..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
569c3c4
|
For starters, circulating oxytocin levels are elevated in couples when they've first hooked up. Furthermore, the higher the levels, the more physical affection, the more behaviors are synchronized, the more long-lasting the relationship, and the happier interviewers rate couples to be.
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
7f82306
|
Thus, oxytocin and vasopressin facilitate bonding between parent and child and between couples.fn10 Now for something truly charming that evolution has cooked up recently. Sometime in the last fifty thousand years (i.e., less than 0.1 percent of the time that oxytocin has existed), the brains of humans and domesticated wolves evolved a new response to oxytocin: when a dog and its owner (but not a stranger) interact, they secrete oxytocin.
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
632ce1f
|
Two complications illustrate some endocrine principles.fn16 Estrogen contributes to maternal aggression. But estrogen can also reduce aggression and enhance empathy and emotional recognition. It turns out there are two different types of receptors for estrogen in the brain, mediating these opposing effects and with their levels independently regulated. Thus, same hormone, same levels, different outcome if the brain is set up to respond diff..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
6fb6940
|
The strength of Us/Them-ing is shown by its emergence in kids. By age three to four, kids already group people by race and gender, have more negative views of such Thems, and perceive other-race faces as being angrier than same-race faces.8 And even earlier. Infants learn same-race faces better than other-race. (How can you tell? Show an infant a picture of someone repeatedly; she looks at it less each time. Now show a different face--if sh..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
6c0caa5
|
Two fantasies dominated my darting then. I wanted to dart Fritz Lipmann. Lipmann was an incredibly famous biochemist, got the Nobel Prize decades ago, and now was an august octogenarian who would spend his day shuffling around the campus in his running shoes, endlessly passing my first-floor dorm window. I would get him in my blowgun sights from behind my biochemistry textbooks (which were half about him), choose between his rear end and sh..
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
04166d8
|
Back to mutations. Can there be mutations in DNA stretches constituting promoters? Yes,
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
9fb2ede
|
In the 1970s Allan Wilson and Mary-Claire King at Berkeley correctly theorized that the evolution of genes is less important than the evolution of regulatory sequences upstream of genes (and thus how the environment regulates genes). Reflecting that, a disproportionate share of genetic differences between chimps and humans are in genes for TFs.
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |
|
e88ba11
|
The candidate gene approaches show that the effect of a single gene on a behavior is typically tiny. In other words, having the "warrior gene" variant of MAO probably has less effect on your behavior than does believing that you have it." --
|
|
|
Robert M. Sapolsky |