Category Archives: Human Behavior

Human Behavior

Two Faces of a Denisovan Revealed and Explained – Ancient Origins

Andrew Collins exclusively reveals the true face of a Siberian Denisovan.

What the Denisovans might have looked like has been one of the hottest debates in paleoanthropology since the discovery of this extinct human lineage back in 2010. Were they big or small? Did they look like their cousins, the Neanderthals, or were they more like anatomically modern humans in appearance? Lastly, were they the giants of legend as some are now speculating ?

Resolving these issues is difficult as just a handful of Denisovan fossil remains have been found. They include two enormous molars, two fragments of a parietal bone from a Denisovan skull, and a finger bone from a young female who lived 75,000 years ago - all found during excavations at the famous Denisova Cave in Siberia. There is also a 160,000-year-old mandible that was found in a cave on the edge of the Tibetan plateau in northwestern China and recently identified as being that of a Denisovan.

Despite this frustrating situation, in September 2019, it was announced that Professor Liran Carmel and Dr. David Gokhman of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, had used epigenetics to analyze gene regulation and cytosine degradation in order to determine the suspected physical make up of the Denisovan face. Their finished reconstruction shows the head and neck of a young female with a rounded head, wide mouth and jaw, minimal chin, brown skin, and striking brown eyes. So well received was their reconstruction that in December 2019 the team won the 2019 Science magazines Peoples Choice for Breakthrough of the Year .

The Hebrew University teams award-winning reconstruction of the Denisovan face. (Image: Maayan-Harel)

Crucial in Carmel and Gokhmans reconstruction of the Denisovan face was data gained from the lineages genome first sequenced in 2010 by the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany. This showed that a significant number of Denisovan genes have been inherited by modern human groups through interbreeding in the distant past. It is perhaps for this reason that Carmel and Gokhmans Denisovan bears similarities to Papua New Guineans and also to certain Australian Originals, both of whom display anything up to 5 percent Denisovan DNA ancestry, the highest rate in any human groups. (See, for comparison, figure below which shows Koori Originals photographed around 1847 in Victoria, Australia. Their features, particularly the man in the middle, can easily be compared with Carmel and Gokhmans Denisovan reconstruction).

Koori Originals photographed by Douglas T. Kilburn around 1847 in Victoria, Australia. Their features are comparable with those of Carmel and Gokhmans Denisovan reconstruction. (Image: National Gallery of Victiria / Public Domain )

So did all Denisovans look like Australian Originals, or indigenous Melanesians? The answer is almost certainly no. For example, studies of Denisovan genes inherited by modern populations in East Asia, Island Southeast Asia, and Papua New Guinea have revealed new information about the evolution of the Denisovan genome. This shows that soon after the Denisovans split from a common ancestor they shared with their cousins the Neanderthals (as much as 475,000-450,000 years ago) the population diverged into two separate types.

One Denisovan population came to inhabit a vast territory possibly extending from Central Asia, Siberia, and northern China in the north to Mongolia and Tibet in the south. Their descendants most likely moved through the Russian Far East before finally crossing the Beringia land bridge into North America; this occurring perhaps as early as 20,000 years ago. From the many discoveries being made in the Denisovan layer at the Denisova Cave it would seem that these Siberian Denisovans as they are known displayed a high level of advanced human behavior.

This included the creation of beautiful jewelry (see, for instance, the Denisovan bracelet below), the making of the earliest known musical instrument in the form of a whistle or flute, the earliest manufacture of bone needles, used most probably to create warm winter clothing, and the production of the earliest symbolic art. This takes the form of an exquisite carving of a mountain lion, possibly a childs comfort toy, which has incised markings suggestive of a basic knowledge of cyclic time.

Denisovan bracelet found in the Denisova Cave, Siberia, and thought to be at least 50,000 years old. (Siberian Times)

It is also thought possible that the Siberian Denisovans developed a sophisticated blade tool technology that was afterwards adopted by the first modern humans to settle in Mongolia some 30,000-40,000 years ago.

The other population of Denisovans lived in southern and southeastern Eurasia, as well as in Island Southeast Asia, Melanesia and possibly even Australia. They displayed a more basic genome, suggesting that they were a more archaic lineage than their northern neighbors.

This second branch of Denisovans are known as Sunda Denisovans (occasionally Australo-Denisovans) after the former Sunda landmass that once linked the Malaysian Peninsula with Indonesia. They themselves would appear to have split into two distinct groups, the youngest of them, according to genetic evidence, perhaps lingering on in places like the Philippines and Papua New Guinea until around 15,000 years ago.

So far there is no hard evidence that the Sunda Denisovans developed the same advanced human behavior achieved by their northerly neighbors. Stone tools as much as 50,000 years old found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi may have been made by Denisovans. If they were created by Denisovans then it would imply that their ancestors had not only crossed the Wallace Line, the deep water channel dividing most of the Indonesian archipelago from Sulawesi, but also that they had sea-going capabilities.

This said, the Sunda Denisovans are unlikely to have developed a sophisticated blade tool technology like their northerly counterparts, since only so-called flake tools existed in Island Southeast Asia during the prehistoric age.

If the portrait of the young female created by Carmel and Gokhmans Hebrew University team is truly representative of a Denisovan, then it is the likeness of a Sunda Denisovan, not a Siberian Denisovan, whose evolutionary development was quite different to that of its southerly counterparts.

So the question remains: what did the Siberian Denisovans look like? How different would they have been to Carmel and Gokhmans reconstruction? To answer this question the present writer asked independent researcher and writer Debbie Cartwright to help in the collation of everything available on the physical appearance of a Siberian Denisovan.

This included all obvious information obtained from the Denisovan genome, such as the fact that Denisovans had brown hair, brown eyes, and brown skin, along with any further information to be gleaned from the few fossil remains found to date. We also looked at the suspected effects on the lineages evolutionary development derived from knowledge that the Siberian Denisovans would appear to have thrived at very high altitudes and also in extremely cold conditions. This probably included the Altai Mountains of Siberia and Mongolia and the Tibetan plateau, one of the highest places on earth.

Such extreme environments might well have necessitated the development of specialized respiratory systems including highly adapted noses that were able both to absorb all available oxygen at altitudes where the air was particularly thin, while at the same time warming up the air sufficiently before it passed into the lungs. For instance, a study by Mark Shriver, a geneticist and anthropologist at Pennsylvania State University, found that the effects of climate upon the evolution of nose size and shape suggested that larger, narrower noses are more suited to higher and colder climates, while wider flatter noses are more suited to hot tropical climates.

It is important also not to forget that Denisovans were related genetically to Neanderthals, meaning that they would have borne at least some physical characteristics in common with them. This probably included a heavy brow bridge, thickset features, and a receding chin - a fact confirmed with the discovery of the 160,000-year-old Denisovan mandible found in a cave on the Tibetan plateau in northwestern China. This is extremely wide and robust and lacks a well-defined chin.

The Xiahe mandible, only represented by its right half, was found in 1980 in Baishiya Karst Cave. ( Dongju Zhang, Lanzhou University )

Also, like the Neanderthals, the Denisovans probably had receding foreheads and extended occipital buns, meaning they perhaps had long heads, as opposed to the more rounded craniums displayed by some early modern human populations such as Australian Originals.

Having made the connection between Denisovans and Neanderthal physiology it is also likely that Denisovans had at least some traits in common with anatomically modern humans ( Homo sapiens ). When a previously misplaced fragment of the finger bone found in the Denisova Cave in 2008 was reunited with the second, more famous, fragment used by the Max Planck Institute to sequence the Denisovan genome, it was realized that the finger did not resemble that of a Neanderthal as had been widely expected. Although the finger bones of archaic humans such as Neanderthals and Homo erectus are extremely thick and quite stubby, the Denisovan finger bone is a lot slimmer, like that of an anatomically modern human.

This connection between anatomically modern humans and Denisovans is perhaps far deeper than anyone has so far suspected for, as the current writer has speculated elsewhere, there is a strong likelihood that the ancestors of the Siberian Denisovans, after leaving Africa, encountered pre-dispersal modern humans already occupying the Levant. Evidence for the existence of these early modern humans has come from the discovery at the Qesem Cave in Israel of eight teeth belonging to members of the Acheulo-Yabrudian Cultural Complex (AYCC), which thrived in the Levant corridor circa 420,000-250,000 years ago. These were found to be almost identical to those of anatomically modern humans.

Having interbred with these early modern humans, the Siberian Denisovans would then have continued their migration eastwards, entering Central Asia, Siberia, and finally, Mongolia and China. If correct, they would have been carrying physiological traits picked up from early modern humans living in the Levant. This is something that the Sunda Denisovans would seem to have missed out on since they most likely took a different route out of Africa, crossing the Arabian peninsula before entering southern Asia, southeastern Asia, and, finally, Island Southeast Asia.

The possibility that the Siberian Denisovans were carrying at least some early modern human genes might also help explain why the Siberian Denisovan genome is slightly different to that of the Sunda Denisovans, and why they would appear to have displayed advanced human behavior before their final disappearance around 45,000 years ago.

And so this brings us to an impression of the Siberian Densovan that appears as follows

The face of a Siberian Denisovan by artist George Hernandez working in concert with writer-researcher Debbie Cartwright and the present author. Genetic information, Denisovan and Neanderthal fossils, and unique traits in anatomically modern humans were used to reconstruct this likeness. (Picture credit: Hernandez/Cartwright/Collins)

For our reconstruction of the Siberian Denisovan we have included some physical traits seen in modern human populations that perhaps benefitted from introgression with this archaic human population. They include modern populations in North Asia, East Asia, and even North America - where First Peoples of the Great Lakes-St Lawrence River region such as the Ojibwa and Cree have been found to possess some Denisovan DNA. They, more than any other population, might well have retained Siberian Denisovan traits through the isolation of their ancestors prior to first contact with Europeans at the start of the historical period.

Debbie Cartwright and I then worked with talented Californian artist George Hernandez to achieve the best likeness of an archaic Siberian Denisovan, here revealed for the first time. It is shown also for comparison alongside Carmel and Gokhmans own reconstruction.

The reconstructed face of a Siberian Denisovan (left) alongside the Hebrew Universitys own representation of a Sunda Denisovan (right). (Picture credits: Left, Hernandez/Cartwright/Collins; Right, Maayan-Harel)

Many similarities can be noted between the two versions, including wide mouths, receding chins, heavy brow ridges, brown eyes, skin and hair, and also large noses, but there are also some differences as well. The face of the Siberian Denisovan is much longer, the brow ridge more prominent (like that of a Neanderthal), the forehead recedes more, while the cheekbone is much higher.

We have also chosen to give the Denisovan a narrow, aquiline nose with a prominent bridge, as opposed to the large, but much flatter nose, of the Carmel and Gokhman reconstruction. As we have seen, such distinctive noses helped in the absorption of oxygen in elevated environments where the air is particularly thin. Yet curiously, an aquiline nose (also known as the Roman or hooked nose) combined with a prominent bridge has often been compared with the head shape of a large bird, most obviously that of an eagle (the Latin word aquiline means eagle-like).

Bird shamanism would appear to have played a significant role in human development for as much as 400,000 years. If, as we suspect, the Siberians Denisovans did possess aquiline noses, then with their prominent bridges and heavy brow ridges there is every reason to suspect that their facial details could be said to resemble those of a bird, something noted in individuals with aquiline noses in more modern times.

Illustration comparing an individual with an aquiline nose, heavy brow and prominent nose arch with the head of an eagle by Charles Le Brun (Image: CC BY 4.0 ).

If correct, then this might have encouraged Siberian Denisovan groups to adopt the guise of birds to engage in early forms of animism and even shamanism, similar to that noted in connection with the AYCC inhabitants of the Qesem Cave in Israel as much as 400,000-250,000 years ago. In other words, Siberian Denisovans came to resemble birds both in physical appearance and in mannerisms, a connection emphasized and even celebrated through ritual practices.

Lastly, we chose to give our Denisovan thick, dreadlocked hair as opposed to the frizzy hair seen in Carmel and Gokhmans reconstruction. Why did we do this? The answer is two-fold. First, it comes from the adoption of dreaded hair for socio-cultural and socio-religious purposes by various modern human populations such as the Himba people of Namibia, the Hindu Sadhus or holy men of India, and the Rastafarians of Jamaica.

Secondly, the deliberate management of long thick hair by dreading and the subsequent use of mud (as well as goat hair in the case of Himba women) to help coat it aids in the prevention of lice and other insect infestations. In addition to this, dreadlocks bunched up on the head would have accentuated the Denisovans suspected elongated heads, emphasizing their individual identity in a world that towards the end of their time circa 45,000-50,000 years ago, would have included Neanderthals, anatomically modern humans and, most likely, hybrids stemming from an admixture of all these various lineages of the homo genus.

Clearly, such a unique feature is based on speculation of how the Siberian Denisovans managed long hair without cutting it and how it might have come to signify their ritual culture. This is an important point, for no matter what evidence is used to reconstruct the face of an archaic human, it will always involve some personal bias. This can be seen, for example, from the many different representations of Neanderthals. They range from virtual ape-men covered in thick body hair, to others where the individual becomes almost indistinguishable from any red-haired, freckled person you might encounter on the street today.

Thus, it has to be accepted that the Denisovan face imagined by artist George Hernandez under the directions of Cartwright and the author must by definition have its own personal bias. This said, we feel it is the closest representation to date of a Siberian Denisovan, as opposed to the face of the Sunda Denisovan developed by Carmel and Gokhman.

Further assessments on the shape of the Denisovan skull and the proportions of the face can only be achieved following the discovery of additional fossils; most urgently a complete cranium. Beyond this will be the eventual discovery of a Denisovan femur, which will help settle the debate over whether or not the Denisovans were of exceptional size and height.

This was first implied by the enormous size of the two Denisovan molars found in the Denisova Cave. Although the two fragments of the Denisovan skull found at the site in 2016 are also suggestive of a large body frame, not enough fossil remains have come to light to answer the question of height and girth with any degree of certainty. So, until such times we must be content with the two faces of a Denisovan presented to the public so far that of Carmel and Gokhmans team from the Hebrew University and that of our own. At least these provide some idea of what this extinct branch of the Homo genus might have looked like.

Top image: The reconstructed face of a Siberian Denisovan (right) alongside the Hebrew Universitys own representation of a Sunda Denisovan (left). Source: Left Hernandez/Cartwright/Collins; b) Maayan-Harel)

By Andrew Collins

Andrew Collins is a history and science writer. His most recent book is Denisovan Origins, co-authored with Gregory L. Little (Bear & Co, 2019).

More:
Two Faces of a Denisovan Revealed and Explained - Ancient Origins

Human Behavior

Darwinism, Jews, and White Nationalists – Discovery Institute

A right-wing Polish member of parliament, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, recently made waves with the astonishing claim that pogroms have been good for the Jewish people, allegedly because they acted as what biologists call selective pressure in the Darwinian struggle for existence. In common parlance, this means the pogroms weeded out the weak Jews, leaving the strong and robust ones to survive and reproduce.

The context for his remarks, incidentally, was a discussion of the coronavirus, which Korwin-Mikke also sees as a good thing, because he thinks it will help promote evolutionary progress by killing off the weak, leaving the superior specimens to propagate the species.

All of this may sound bizarre, but recently I have been learning that it is common today for white nationalists to rely on such Darwinian explanations to promote their racist, anti-Semitic perspective. In the past few months I have been working on a chapter (in a book on Darwinian Racism in the Nazi Worldview) on the Darwinian racism of white nationalists. Korwin-Mikkes comments are unfortunately not uncommon in those circles.

Indeed the evolutionary psychologist Kevin MacDonald, an emeritus professor at California State University, Long Beach, has published a trilogy of scholarly books that purportedly explains the behavior of Jews and anti-Semites as evolutionary strategies in the Darwinian struggle for existence. MacDonald is a member of the white nationalist or alt-right movement, and he is widely cited by other white nationalists. Darwinian racism and evolutionary psychology are both de rigueur among white nationalists today.

MacDonald is so committed to Darwinian explanations for human behavior, in fact, that he has popularized (at least among fellow white nationalists) the claim that opposition to Darwinism is a Jewish plot to subvert the white race. When the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed came out over a decade ago, MacDonald explained that Ben Stein participated in order to further the interests of the Jews. Of course, just like most conspiracy theorists, MacDonald ignores many inconvenient facts, such as that most anti-Darwinists in the world are not Jews, and most Jews, especially secular Jews, accept Darwinism with alacrity.

Photo: Janusz Korwin-Mikke, by Adrian Grycuk / CC BY-SA 3.0 PL.

See the original post:
Darwinism, Jews, and White Nationalists - Discovery Institute

Human Behavior

Legacy That Is Truly Yours – Harbus Online

Umang Sota, Contributor

Umang Sota (MBA 21) talks with Khaled Kteily (HKS MPP 16) about his male fertility start-up Legacy.

There are few things in life that are more precious than having a family and having children. Of course, having children is important for the continuation of the human race. But on a personal level, for people who want or have children, children add meaning to and change parents lives in ways they have never imagined. The selfless love, the baby steps of evolution and the joy of leaving ones legacy for the next generation are the most fulfilling for most parents.

However, kids are not necessarily on most peoples agenda while they are working to get their next promotion, fund-raising for their startup or studying in business school.

The average age of first-time mothers has consistently increased over the years from 24.5 years to now 27 years and even 29.9 years in some countries. The numbers for men look equally grim: the average age of first-time fathers has increased from 27.4 years to 30.9 years, per a report from Stanford University.

Older parenthood brings its own set of challenges. Infertility, defined as the inability to become pregnant after at least a year of trying to conceive, has been deemed as a global public health issue by the World Health Organization. WHO has calculated that infertility affects over 10% of women when considering women who have unsuccessfully tried to conceive and who have remained in a stable relationship for five years or more.

Historically, fertility and its challenges have been ascribed to women. So, while the market for female contraception and fertility solutions is as old as the 1960s, the area for men has been largely unexplored.

Khaled Kteily (HKS MPP 16), Founder and CEO of a male fertility start-up Legacy, states, Contrary to popular belief, men have biological clocks, too. And various researchers agree. Studies have shown that semen quantity peaks between the ages of 30 and 35. In addition, sperm motility (i.e., the movement and swimming of sperm) reduces by as much as 54% from men in the ages 30 to 35 to men over the age of 55.

Kteily further explains, It takes two to make a baby. And so, if we focus on only female fertility treatments, we are sort of reducing our odds of success by half.

With increasing awareness and new technologies, there is an opportunity to address the gaps in male fertility diagnoses and solutions. The male infertility market is predicted to be worth $2.5 billion (10% of the global fertility market of $25 billion) per CB Insights industry consensus.

Kteily tells me, It all became real for me when I was in a personal accident that could have impacted my ability to have kids. And when I looked around for some options, all I found were some dingy clinics with no thought for convenience, customer experience and sense of safety. So, I decided to leave my job as a consultant and create a solution.

The current market for male fertility includes assessment, consultation, sperm freezing and actual treatments. Kteily further explains, I decided to focus on the early assessment and sperm freezing because I believe the prevention route can have the biggest impact. Legacy has used the power of modern internet and reliable logistics to change a market that hasnt seen much innovation in decades. Legacy offers its men an ability to get a fertility analysis and/or long-term cryogenic storage of the sperm for future usage by submitting their sample conveniently and discreetly using an at-home kit sent by Legacy.

By innovating on the business model, Legacy is able to drastically reduce the market price points from the current $1000 to $195 for initial assessment and from $500 to $145 per month for storage. Kteily shares, I didnt want this to be a luxury for the rich. I wanted to democratize it as everyone deserves a chance to have children.

Jeff Bezos has famously said, Customers will always want lower prices. While it is generally true, I feel in industries like these, there may be heightened concerns about privacy, safety and, even most importantly, reliability. People wouldnt want to use a mismatched sperm sample when they actually reproduce.

Legacy, in Kteilys words, takes this very seriously, is FDA-registered and has a sophisticated Digital Custody Management system. Kteily adds, We dont work on move fast and break things philosophy. We have taken our time to roll out services in the U.S. and are expanding very thoughtfully.

Legacys business model is focused on giving a powerful user experience but at the backend, they are spending time on building a robust value chain. They do stringent due diligence to find credible partners for access to world-class cryogenic facilities.

On the other hand, the demand side presents a different set of challenges. We know there is a need but as Kteily says Men havent reached a stage where they think about this issue with the same sensibility as women or even think it is their responsibility. Men, usually, just laugh it off. Reading from these signs, Legacy takes a different Go-To-Market approach. The target customer segment for them is not men but the women in mens lives. It solves a big initial problem for education and receptiveness. Generally, women think about this a lot earlier and with much more maturity. Some of the channels used by Legacy include female fertility companies, employee benefit providers and hospitals or clinics.

Kteily is optimistic and sees a dynamic shift in the future where the initial analysis and sperm freezing will become largely direct-to-consumer. Kteily believes With increased awareness, sperm assessment and freezing will be like a regular part of growing up. It will be just another milestone like going to college. It would be an ideal 25th birthday gift.

And who knows what the new advancements would bring? Perhaps one-day ectogenesis (artificial womb) will be a reality, making pregnancy optional. It will be interesting to see how some of these disruptions will change human behavior and life altogether.

As for Kteily, Legacy is being well-received across investors and customers alike. Since its beginning at the Harvard Innovation lab in 2018, Legacy has raised successful seed ($1.5 million) and early-stage ($3.5 million) investments from the likes of Bain Capital, Y-combinator and others, and has provided its services to thousands of men across the U.S.

Umang Sota (MBA 21) is originally from India and has worked in product and business development roles in the B2B technology space across Asia and Europe. Prior to joining HBS, Umang was the Global Head of Product for Tata Communications Cloud & Data Center Services based out of London. In addition to technology, she is passionate about early education and has taken on active leadership roles in projects around education for the last 10+ years across India, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

Original post:
Legacy That Is Truly Yours - Harbus Online

Human Behavior

An unforgettable mother, a shared history of sexism, in ‘Actress’ – The Boston Globe

Family ties have always been a central focus of Anne Enrights probing, gorgeously written fiction, and her new novel examines two in eloquent detail: narrator Norah FitzMaurices fraught bond with her mother Katherine ODell, the eponymous actress; and Norahs tense but enduring marriage to a man we know only as you. As in such previous Enright novels as The Green Road and her 2007 Booker Prize winner, The Gathering, the characters personal dramas unfold within a sharply observed social context. Ambition and desire are tangled up with sexism and male violence in Actress, as Norahs account of her mothers career mingles with her own memories of childhood and of coming of age in Ireland during the Troubles, a period of sexual as well as political unrest.

People ask me, What was she like? These are Norahs first words to us, her readers, and they pose one of the novels defining questions, for Norah isnt sure she truly knew this woman who was always performing. Indeed, did Katherine know herself? A marvelous description of her signature curtain call (too richly detailed, alas, to quote) suggests that when she wasnt playing a part, Katherine did not exist, almost. The woman we first meet, in 1973 at Norahs 21st birthday party, is 45 and, in the eyes of the world, finished. Professionally, sexually. In those days, when a woman hit thirty she went home and shut the door. Katherines refusal to accept this judgment leads in 1980 to her shooting a Dublin film producer in the foot; he is crippled and she gets committed to a mental institution.

It takes time for Norah (and her readers) to make this connection, although she tells us about the shooting immediately after describing her birthday party, which introduces us to a predatory university professor whose significance will also become clear later. Actress progresses the way thought does, winding in and out of present and past on a journey towards understandingor maybe just acceptance. Norah is prodded into this journey in middle age, a quarter-century after her mothers death in 1986, by a visit from a graduate student writing a thesis intended to reclaim Katherine ODell as an agent in the worldin all her radical subjectivity. (Though the tone here is generally dark, Enright is bitingly funny about academic jargon and other forms of blather.)

Four hours later, Norah recalls, you said I should write the damn book myself. With those words, the second crucial relationship in Norahs life is introduced, and her husband (you) enters the narrative as a thorny character whose suggestion was made, she notes, in a tone of bottomless irritation, as though my failure to write the book was pretty much on par with my failure to stack the dishwasheryou were a martyr to my incompetence in this and other matters. We never learn his name, but as Norah investigates her mothers pastperhaps to shut him up?we do learn that the condescension and exploitation Katherine experienced as a rising star in America in the late 1940s and early 50s were still part of the male arsenal when Norah was typing articles for the magazine her husband-to-be and his pals launched at university in the 70s. Nonetheless, they are still married, and Enrights unflinching portrait of a couple that never made up our minds about anythingexcept each other is scrupulously developed and painfully moving.

Katherines sojourn in America followed her youth on the road, the daughter of strolling players whose itinerant theatrical milieu is lovingly recreated by Enright. In 1948, she came to America, to be remade by her agent into the quintessential Irishwoman, hair dyed red and dressed always in greenuntil she put on a habit for the career-making role as a lovestruck nun that took her to Hollywood. And it was in America that she got pregnant. After moving back to Ireland with her baby, Katherine gave varying accounts of the father Norah never knew, beginning with the romantic tale of a loving artist killed in a car crash and ending with the bleak statement, he does not have a name. Doesnt deserve one. The posthumous revelation that buttresses this claim is so outr in some of its particulars that its barely credible, but it serves as a capstone to Enrights stark depictions of sex as a power struggle in which men mostly have the upper hand.

But not always: Enright is too discerning an artist to make blanket assertions about human nature or human behavior, and her characters are too vibrant to be neatly categorized. Norah and her husband are equally capable of cruelty and infidelity; Katherine has been wronged, but she is no cringing victim. The social forces that that shape these lives are important, but there is an equally important inner imperative at work: Norahs effort to understand her mothers life, entwined with her effort to understand her marriage. In the end she comes to the same conclusion about each: love is difficult and inexplicable, never to be entirely plumbed, and enough to be getting on with.

Wendy Smith, a contributing editor at The American Scholar and Publishers Weekly, reviews books for The Washington Post and was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circles citation for excellence in reviewing.

ACTRESS

By Anne Enright

W. W. Norton, 264 pages, $26.95

Go here to see the original:
An unforgettable mother, a shared history of sexism, in 'Actress' - The Boston Globe

Human Behavior

As Farming Developed, So Did Cooperation And Violence – Ancient Origins

The growth of ancient farming / agriculture led to unprecedented cooperation in human societies, a team of researchers, has found, but it also led to a spike in violence, an insight that offers lessons for the present.

A new study out today in Environmental Archaeology by collaborators from UConn, the University of Utah, Troy University, and California State University, Sacramento examines the growth of agriculture in Eastern North America 7,500 to 5,000 years ago, and finds that while the domestication of plants fostered new cooperation among people, it also saw the rise of organized, intergroup violence.

"We were interested in understanding why people would make the shift from hunting and gathering to ancient farming," says Elic Weitzel, a UConn Ph.D. student in anthropology. "Then I started to get interested in what happened in society after they made that shift and started farming on a larger scale."

Representation of early human hunter-gatherer, before the development of ancient farming. ( Gorodenkoff / Adobe stock)

The team used the "ideal free distribution" model to look at patterns of how individuals distribute themselves in an area, meaning places where people will begin occupying the best locations first. A number of factors make an area more suitable such as access to food, water, raw materials, and shelter. To measure suitability, the team looked at an indicator called "net primary productivity," which is a measure of available energy based on the plants in the area. In areas of higher net primary productivity, there were more people clustered together - and more conflict.

"If you are living in a suitable area, you can lay claim and keep others from accessing what you have. That becomes a cooperative process, because one person is not as effective as a whole group is at defending a territory," says Weitzel.

A growing population can decrease the suitability of a location over time, but that does not always mean declining quality of life. To study this, the team also took into consideration the concept known as Allee's Principle, which states that individual fitness, or likelihood of survival and reproduction, increases as the density of the population increases due to cooperative behaviors. Weitzel explains that for something like a crop of plants, they represent something valuable, and the value of cooperative behavior becomes apparent.

Corn farm in the sunshine. ( Smileus / Adobe stock)

"The transition from a hunting and gathering society to an agricultural society is dependent on collaboration," says co-author Stephen Carmody, of Troy University. "The development of agriculture appears to only have happened in nine places around the world so Eastern North America is a unique part of the world to study. Agriculture was one of the most consequential transitions that happened in the past. It changed our whole economic situation."

Developments such as combined efforts for harvesting and defense, and possibly even sharing seeds among groups, could happen with interpersonal cooperation, which leads to greater chances of survival for the group.

As the saying goes, many hands make for lighter work and, Weitzel says, the research is about cooperation and competition at the same time.

"When a resource like domesticated crops is dense and predictable, that is when we expect that it would be defendable," he says. "Other groups may want access to your crop in case their crop failed, for example. There is cooperation and there are aspects of competition. Harvesting and defending."

Weitzel explains that this time period - 7,500 to 5,000 years ago - is not only when researchers found people aggregating and living cooperatively in high-quality locations, it is also when they saw an uptick in intergroup violence, as shown by skeletons showing the effects of "trophy-taking."

"Of course there are signs of violence throughout history, but trophy-taking is a different type of violence," Weitzel says. "The victor removes a part of the loser as a signal they won. They took scalps, hands, feet, heads - that first evidence appears to have happened at the same time as plant management."

This reflects the Allee Principle's limit: a point at which population density surpasses an optimum number, and suitability declines as a result.

"As the ideal free distribution and Allee effects predict, at a certain point, the benefits of cooperation start to wane, and you see dispersal again. There are incentives to be around other people, but not too many other people," says Weitzel.

After the spike in trophy-taking violence, there was a period of time when the populations dispersed once again, although populations still aggregated. During the dispersal period, researchers found a corresponding decrease in trophy-taking violence.

"We see a lot of things that look modern to us, for example social inequality and climate change ," Carmody says. "However, these are fundamental processes and large-scale issues. A lot of these issues tie back to the origin of agriculture."

By understanding early human interactions, Weitzel says this knowledge can help understand our present and even influence the way we think about the future.

"This is one of the ways archaeology is relevant to contemporary and future society," he says. "The modeling of human behaviors in society and our relationships can help us overcome current collective action problems. We are all better off if we cooperate."

Top image: Development of ancient farming: representation of early human protecting his farm. Source: benevolente / Adobe stock

Originally written by Elaina Hancock, UConn Communications

This article was first published as press release by University of Connecticut , and has been republished.

Source: University of Connecticut/ UConn Today. As Farming Developed, So Did Cooperation And Violence UConn Today, March 4, 2020.

Elic M. Weitzel, Brian F. Codding, Stephen B. Carmody & David W. Zeanah. 2020. Food Production and Domestication Produced Both Cooperative and Competitive Social Dynamics in Eastern North America. Environmental Archaeology,DOI: 10.1080/14614103.2020.1737394

Continue reading here:
As Farming Developed, So Did Cooperation And Violence - Ancient Origins

Human Behavior

Interdisciplinary Learning Community Participates in Urban Immersion with Open Table Nashville – India Education Diary

On February 27, Dr. Sabrina Sullenberger, professor of social work, and Dr. Amy Hodges Hamilton, professor of English, took students on a classroom excursion in Nashville with local nonprofitOpen Table Nashville. The professors teach an Interdisciplinary Learning Community (ILC) called Trauma Studies, combining a social work course on human behavior and social environment with a writing course centered on trauma and resilience.

Nashville isnt the it city for everyone.Being able to think about our privilege in the quiet space of a downtown church building, after hearing someone share their story of trauma and homelessness while seeing their resilience is powerful, stated Dr. Sullenberger, a proud board member of Open Table Nashville. I love the ability to take students on the immersion because they get to hear someones story in a context more powerful than a classroom.

I think one of the most exciting parts of the Interdisciplinary Learning Communities course structure is this ability for students to not only see the connection between two different disciplines but to also have the opportunity to go out into the community and engage with the material in a real, tangible way, explained Dr. Hodges Hamilton. The Open Table Immersion does just that, and Im always so grateful for the opportunity to learn more about how we can move the theory of trauma and resilience into action.

Students and faculty traveled to Church Street Park in downtown Nashville to meet Lindsey Krinks, a co-founder of Open Table Nashville. The nonprofit is an interfaith homeless outreach organization that disrupts cycles of poverty, journeys with the marginalized and provides education about issues of homelessness.

Stepping off the bus, students were guided through an urban immersion tour led by Krinks. She gave shocking statistics about homelessness in Nashville and shared success stories of securing housing for friends on the streets. Krinks invited her dear friend Brian Jones to share his own story of homelessness and the journey to housing. His story of trial and resilience touched the hearts of students and faculty.

Freshman McKenzie Martin shared, When I met Brian, it was evident that he was love, service and courage personified. Despite the trials hes survived, Brian actively seeks ways to help others. In a world so often consumed by selfishness, hes willing to lend a hand, a snack and even a hug to all he encounters. Through the immersion, Brian taught me that leading a life of love has the power to conquer all. I left the trip immensely inspired to be a light to those around me, just like Brian.

Belmont Universitys ILC links two courses by the same topic or issue, showing students that all the various academic disciplines are interconnected. The instructors teaching the course work collaboratively to explore a connection between the two disciplines.

Alumna Claudia Christensen graduated from Belmont in May 2019 and had a powerful experience with a similar ILC, including the same writing course paired with a sociology course focused on social problems. She said, My ILC completely changed my plans, my heart and my life. After falling in love with the course materials, I switched my major to sociology and added a writing minor. Through engaging with the community, performing sociological research and writing my own story, I was able to fully understand the power words have to transform and heal. My ILC was one of the most important pieces of my education at Belmont, and I will forever be grateful that I had the privilege to be a part of something so special.

Read the original post:
Interdisciplinary Learning Community Participates in Urban Immersion with Open Table Nashville - India Education Diary

Human Behavior

Even the Machines Are Racist. Facial Recognition Systems Threaten Black Lives. – Truthout

Facial recognition technology promises to alert us if our children are skipping out on their college classes, to zip us past all the suckers waiting in line at the airport and to create nationwide databases to catch the bad guys. This newest biometric data is sold as a shortcut to utopia: technology that delivers responsible kids, quick service and safe streets all with a scan of the human face. Politicians and companies pushing facial recognition technology say that, like the near-certainty of DNA and the exactness of fingerprint matches, the software is a precise, unbiased alternative to human bigotry in policing. Yet in reality, facial recognition technology is prone to false positives that target Black and Brown people, and then tracks them when theyre on parole. Instead of offering a kind of utopia, this biometric tool locks people into the dystopia of an already unjust criminal legal system.

Increasingly, this criminal legal system relies less on investigative work and more on the devices that are everywhere and record our every move. The ubiquity of security cameras and the dread that has gripped the collective unconscious since 9/11 have normalized a constant gaze and enabled the proliferation of perpetual surveillance. Intrusive technology is a conventional, everyday reality for younger people who have experienced sustained recording of their movements in the public realm since the day they were born. Even those of us who can remember a time before mass surveillance have acclimated to the perpetual presence of devices that record our movements every day we step outside our homes and, for some of us, even when we stay indoors.

The ubiquity of constant observation is so absolute that we have been conditioned to enable our own surveillance. We click the Facebook ads for video doorbells ads that seem to sense our fear of crime and terror and promise to replace those awful feelings with the buzz of becoming the Watcher, of gazing into our smartphones and communicating with anyone who comes to our doorstep when were not home. These commercials promise to give us the power to interrogate, even denigrate, anyone who comes to our doorstep and activates our video doorbell. What few owners of these systems realize is that they are paying for devices that catch, retain, and, in some municipalities, share with law enforcement the images of everyone who comes to our homes even our family and friends.

Get the news you want, delivered to your inbox every day.

According to a 2016 paper published by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy and Technology entitled The Perpetual Line-Up, one in two Americans is in a law enforcement face recognition network. These Americans are not necessarily adults. In 2019, The New York Times reported that local city law enforcement had loaded a facial recognition database with thousands of juvenile mug shots. These images of children, teenagers aged 13 to 16, as well as some tweens as young as 11 years old, can be utilized by the NYPD despite evidence the technology has a higher risk of false matches in younger faces. People without criminal records are also entered into these systems. According to the Georgetown study, the FBI is no longer limiting its databases to the fingerprints and DNA evidence collected during criminal investigations, but is now using drivers license photos to build a biometric network that primarily includes law-abiding Americans [emphasis theirs]. This is a problem for everyone, but especially for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), considering the propensity of this technology to return false positives of Black and Brown faces. The ACLU has reported that face recognition technology is known to produce biased and inaccurate results, especially when applied to people of color.

The ACLU identifies the roots of face recognition in pre-computational, racist policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which empowered government workers to determine affiliation in an ethnic group with nothing more than a careless glance at persons seeking the universal right to work and live with their families. Black, Indigenous and Latinx people have also experienced the intergenerational trauma of system controllers making life-altering decisions based on outward appearance and biased assumptions regarding racial groups. White supremacy undergirded pencil erasure, one-drop rules and the history of racial passing.

The ACLU warns us to rethink the normalization of the capture of biometric data by law enforcement and by corporations today. Amazon is one of the corporations whose facial recognition use the ACLU is monitoring. The largest company in the world by market share, Amazon is in partnership with over 400 police departments nationwide. In 2018, the company applied for a patent to add face recognition to its Ring video doorbell camera system. Facial recognition offers Amazon control over a nationwide, technology-driven version of the neighborhood watch one that can subject innocent people to data-gathering software that could potentially label them suspicious and thus in danger of police harassment. This partnership subjects vulnerable populations to more surveillance and these risks are absorbed by Black and Brown bodies in our interactions with police. It is clear that the convenience to remotely address visitors with systems like Ring comes at a price, like the loss of privacy, but society still has not quantified the cost of civil liberties violations when people walking their dogs or checking their mailboxes even beyond the Ring owners property line enter flawed database systems controlled by law enforcement.

As new as facial recognition technology is, the police and corporate surveillance for which it is used is rooted in the racism of the past. Charlton McIlwain is a New York University vice provost and professor of media, culture and communication. In his book Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter, McIlwain provides a breathtaking summary of the influence a company called Simulmatics had on the 1960 presidential election. His research emphasizes the more sinister ways Black people have been debased by technology through time.

The data-gathering and aggregating thrust of Simulmatics began at the MIT Computation Center. According to McIlwain, the universitys first political science professor, Ithiel de Sola Pool, supported the schools vision, to infuse its science and engineering curriculum with the social sciences and solidify the nations political and economic power.

Pool worked to conceptually mimic how people make voting decisions through a mathematical equation designed to replicate the voting propensities of specific racial, ethnic, religious and economic groups. This data was used to influence Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and compel him to articulate a focus on racial and civil rights issues, and sway the presidential election in his favor.

McIlwain insists Simulmaticss goal was not the liberation of BIPOC people but rather power-consolidating control. Indeed, with a military subcontract called Project AGILE, Simulmatics improved the effectiveness of a propaganda and psychological warfare campaign in Vietnam called Chiu Hi that the U.S. mobilized to coerce Viet Cong insurgents.

Back in the United States, in the aftermath of the 1965 Watts Riots, Simulmatics used polling and demographic data to capture public opinion. But Simulmatics did more than report what Watts residents were thinking about race and politics; Simulmatics used technology to influence what people outside of Watts were thinking about race and politics. McIlwain explains that, because Simulmatics had no prior connection to, and little understanding of those communities, they often misunderstood and mischaracterized how Black folks explained their experiences of racism, marginalization and oppression at the hands of the cops, media and other institutions. The new computerized statistical tools that Simulmatics used aggregated and distributed these racial misrepresentations to the public.

In addition to the interviews theyd gathered, Simulmatics also utilized traffic reports and data from toll booths, bus traffic and gasoline sales to track the movements of people in and out of the riot area. This data helped the establishment successfully track the movement of revolutionaries and ordinary people, and enable them to increasingly utilize computer hardware and software to monitor and oppress Black people. While McIlwain acknowledges that The Kerner Report identified institutionalized violence against Black people, it also reinforced long standing stereotypes white America held about Black people that amounted to one conclusion: Black people are, if not racially, certainly culturally inferior.

The Simulmatics project was an effort to game the system in a way, McIlwain explains. To use data we could produce about human behavior to try to manipulate the outcomes of everything from an election to wars. One of its chief purposes was to strategically manufacture disinformation as a way of thwarting would-be uprisings, or riots, or other threats to the system.

Indeed, McIlwain identifies the Simulmatics project as a point of origination for todays massive disinformation campaigns, such as Russian interference in the 2016 election. In his book, McIlwain explains that work done by Simulmatics legitimized and normalized the principles on which it was based: the idea that the computer could model, and therefore manipulate, human systems and behavior. It was once theory. It soon became policy. Black people would continue to remain its subject for experimentation. Computing power would be used on them.

Computing development accelerated in the 1960s, peak years in the mid-20th century movement for racial justice. According to McIlwain, the government identified the computer as a tool to silence revolutionary fervor, and the computing industry leaped at the opportunity to profit from this government effort. By 1965, this collusion of government, private industry (namely IBM), and elite science and engineering institutions (like MIT) had produced a powerful new technology that they referred to as a criminal justice information system.

Used to collect, store and analyze crime data, these systems gave law enforcement resources to profile and target Black people and communities across the country McIlwain says, adding that these systems left a long legacy, and a direct line to todays most destructive technologies, from facial recognition to all types of risk scoring technologies to digital surveillance tools that make Black people hypervisible targets.

This line is important to trace, because Simulmatics delivered computational data to political party leaders and to the U.S.s military industrial complex. The motivation in an election or in war was control, McIlwain says. The data-informed strategies that Simulmatics pioneered was valuable to military strategists. They believed that by amassing data about how individuals and groups of human beings behaved they could manipulate and control the thoughts, movements and behaviors of those people. Doing so, they believed, would help them know how to spread disinformation, or neutralize someone they believed was becoming a powerful leader, or try to make someone who is your enemy believe you are their friend. All for the purpose of controlling and leading people towards a desired outcome.

In his book, McIlwain identifies system controllers who, instead of trying to eradicate racism, instead exploited racism in order to concretize their power. Today, similar technology, particularly facial recognition technology, is still being used to subjugate BIPOC people. Like many biometric technologies, McIlwain says, facial recognition often seeks to identify and deal with people that law enforcement and governments perceive as threats, criminals, and undesirables. Given BIPOCs longstanding association with all of these, facial recognition technologies are often trained to look for us. The machinery that enables facial recognition [is] where BIPOC live and congregate. It provides law enforcement another tool in its arsenal to turn BIPOC into perpetual suspects.

While this manipulation crosses racial lines, it is fair to say that, given the facts of our shared history, the guiding principle for all biometric systems like facial recognition is racism. Racism influences facial recognition inasmuch as the search for human distinction is rooted in biology (be it eyes, a face, skin color, or otherwise), McIlwain says. The need to establish the truth of your identity has always been driven by the desire to separate us from them, and that us and them is frequently a racial distinction. While people who fear the Darker Other might sleep better because they believe in the technology-driven security systems that make them feel safe, McIlwain cautions all of us to suspect any technology that purports to keep us safe.

Parents told that facial recognition will keep the bad guys out of their childrens local school should be especially diligent. The ACLU makes the case that not only do childrens faces change at a rapid pace, reducing the effectiveness of the biometric technology, the threat to schools almost always comes from within the school community, so a shooter would not likely be flagged as an outsider anyway.

Consistent with the ACLU, McIlwain argues that we should be concerned by facial recognition in schools for the same reason we should be concerned about its use by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). You make suspects out of people when you utilize facial recognition in a given area, when you surveil the people in a given area, McIlwain says. While ICE justifies this surveillance under the pretext of law and order, the hypervisibility of BIPOC and profit-driven policing produces police control, and vulnerable people are therefore targeted for arrest, incarceration, deportation. A similar dynamic could play out in schools. For example, law enforcement could use data about a child to target parents suspected of being undocumented workers.

Facial recognition technology is also being used to target those advocating for liberation from these racist systems. McIlwain thinks it is probably a very safe assumption that images of many people who have engaged in direct action to support the Movement for Black Lives are held captive in a database somewhere. It has been very well reported that law enforcement were/are very present at such BLM direct actions, utilizing multiple forms of facial recognition technology or the tools that enable them any imaging tool like a camera or video to identify persons of interest or suspects. Think of it as COINTELPRO on steroids.

But staying away from public protest offers no protection from the watchful gaze of system controllers. People who have been stopped and frisked, even young, innocent citizens, should assume that the police body camera that recorded their encounter with law enforcement has saved an image of their face to a database system. McIlwain believes the increasingly effective technology that links data and data systems only heightens the threat of facial recognition. On its own, facial recognition is problematic. But this technology is even more sinister when biometric data is linked with criminal records data, linked to social media or internet tracking data, and employment records data, McIlwain says. That is how the surveillance capabilities of governments and corporations really expand and become dangerous. And we know that that danger will be felt by BIPOC first and hardest.

We must resist the idea that constant surveillance gives us safety and that technology will somehow liberate us from fear. Though it may feel counterintuitive to think of security as a threat, in our dystopian reality, even technology is racist.

Originally posted here:
Even the Machines Are Racist. Facial Recognition Systems Threaten Black Lives. - Truthout

Human Behavior

Change in mankind brought about by transforming the heart – Brunswick News

From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Im studying anthropology. The professor claims that behavior can be changed by altering genes. Does the Bible support this theory?

Dear G.A.: Studies in anthropology, psychology, and sociology to discover the laws of human behavior are an important part of educational research. Too often, however, researchers ignore the fact of human sin and see a human being as proceeding from a combination of genes and chromosomes, and then shaped by his environment.

Years ago at a meeting of the American Anthropological Association a new discipline was introduced called sociobiology. Described as the study of the biological basis for social behavior in every species; its practitioners believe that some and perhaps much of human behavior is genetically determined, implying that a good deal more of mankinds morality may be genetically based.

But they fail[ed] to give a proper place to the inborn twist toward selfishness, viciousness, and indifference to God, making many of their conclusions only pseudoscientific. If we are shaped by our genes, and molded by our environment, then all we need to do is develop a way to alter genetic bases in humans or cure mans environment in terms of bad housing, slums, poverty, unemployment, and racial discrimination.

Its been said that many ministers attack the sin of society in an attempt to make society squirm. The truth is that we should do what we can to help those who live under terrible poverty and oppression. Ultimately, however, society is not going to be changed with coercion and force because when changed that way, man usually loses his freedom.

The change in mankind isnt brought about by altering genes but rather transforming the heart. It can only be changed by a transformation of the human heart through Christ. God has said, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you (Ezekiel 36:26).

Follow this link:
Change in mankind brought about by transforming the heart - Brunswick News

Human Behavior

Prefer tea over coffee? It could be your genes, study finds – KYMA

Whether youre inclined to choose coffee or green tea for your morning boost could be determined by your genes, a recent study found.

To examine genetic associations with food preferences, researchers from the Riken Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) and Osaka University in Japan studied the genetic data and food preferences of more than 160,000 people in Japan.

The research, published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, found genetic links for 13 dietary habits including consumption of alcohol, other beverages and foods, and also complex human diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

We know that what we eat defines what we are, but we found that what we are also defines what we eat, said Yukinori Okada, Senior Visiting Scientist at Riken IMS and professor at Osaka University, in a press release.

Genome studies are typically conducted to associate specific genetic variations with particular diseases, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the US National Institutes of Health.

This involves grouping thousands of people together depending on whether they have a disease and looking at DNA markers called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, which can be used to predict the presence of that disease. If researchers find a SNP that is repeatedly associated with the disease group, they can assume that people with that genetic variation might be at risk for the disease.

Rather than looking at diseases, the Riken team examined dietary habits to find out if there were any markers that made people at risk for typically eating certain foods.

The researchers used data of more than 160,000 Japanese people from the BioBank Japan Project, launched in 2003 with a goal to provide evidence for the implementation of personalized medicine. The project collects DNA and clinical information, including items related to participants lifestyles such as dietary habits, which were recorded through interviews and questionnaires.

They found nine genetic locations that were associated with consuming coffee, tea, alcohol, yogurt, cheese, natto (fermented soy beans), tofu, fish, vegetables and meat.

Variants responsible for the ability to taste bitter flavors were also observed. This association was found among people who liked to eat tofu; while those without the variant consumed less alcohol or none at all.

Those who ate more fish, natto, tofu and vegetables had a genetic variant that made them more sensitive to umami tastes, best described as savory or meaty flavors.

The main ingredients of the foods mattered, too for example, there were positive genetic correlations between eating yogurt and eating cheese, both milk-based foods.

In order to find whether any of these genetic markers associated with food were also linked with disease, the researchers conducted a phenome study.

The phenome comprises all the possible observable traits of DNA, known as phenotypes. Six of the genetic markers associated with food were also related to at least one disease phenotype, including several types of cancer as well as type 2 diabetes.

Since the research studied only people native to Japan, the same genetic variations associated with food preferences are likely not applicable to populations across the globe. However, similar links have been discovered in different groups.

A 2014 study presented at the European Journal of Human Genetics meeting in Milan identified a genetic variant that affects preferences for butter or oil on bread. A separate European study from the same year found genetic variants related to the perception of saltiness of a food.

A form of a bitter receptor gene was found, in a 2014 study, to contribute to differences in the enjoyment of coffee: People who perceived stronger bitterness liked coffee more; those with a lower bitterness perception liked coffee less.

The study authored by Okada also didnt measure environmental factors. Our environment, demographics, socioeconomic status and culture such as whether we eat food from work or home; our age; how much money we make; and what our families eat are some of the biggest drivers of our food choices.

These factors would weigh more than the genetics in some cases, said Dr. Jos Ordovs, director of Nutrition and Genomics at Tufts University in Massachusetts, who was not involved in the study.

Given all the findings that genetic differences influence not only responses to foods but preferences as well, experts think considering them can help nutritionists personalize diets to each persons needs and tastes while still hitting nutritional requirements.

Something that sometimes we have felt is that the nutrition field has been focusing too much on nutrients rather than on foods, Ordovs said.

Previous studies have been looking at genes that were associating with higher protein intake or higher fat intake or higher carbohydrate intake, Ordovs said. But this study is more aligned with the fact that people eat foods. They dont just eat proteins, carbohydrates and fats. People tend to eat within a specific pattern.

Further research is needed to explain an exact balance between genetic predisposition and volition when it comes to food choices in different groups of people, but Okada suggests that by estimating individual differences in dietary habits from genetics, especially the risk of being an alcohol drinker, we can help create a healthier society.

Link:
Prefer tea over coffee? It could be your genes, study finds - KYMA

Human Behavior

3 out of 4 dogs suffer from some form of anxiety, and owners should be more aware of this – ZME Science

Its not just humans that suffer from behavioral problems, dogs get them too. Some of these problems may include excessive barking, destructiveness, aggression, and fearfulness. A new study of nearly 14,000 Finnish pet dogs examined seven anxiety-like traits, finding that nearly three-quarters (72.5%) of dogs had some kind of highly problematic behavior.

The study involved 13,715 dogs from 264 breeds, including 200 mix-breed dogs. The most common anxiety trait was noise sensitivity with 32% of dogs being highly fearful of at least one noise (i.e. thunder, fireworks, etc). The second most common trait was fearfulness (i.e. fear of other dogs, fear of strangers, etc.) with a prevalence of 29%. Separation related behavior and aggression were the most uncommon traits with a prevalence of 5% and 14%, respectively.

The dogs behavioral traits were reported by their Finnish owners through an online questionnaire. Their answers were then compiled into a dataset that classified and ranked the dogs as being either low trait or high trait depending on the severity of their anxiety-related behaviors.

Typically, self-reported data is not seen as the most reliable. In this case, however, theres no better source to describe a pets behavior than their owners. In fact, Milla Salonen, the first author of the new study and a Ph.D. student at the University of Helsinki, told Gizmodo that dog owners are actually pretty good at evaluating their animals and dog personality questionnaires are as reliable or even slightly more reliable than human personality questionnaires.

According to the findings, many anxiety-related disorders became worse as dogs got older, especially for fear of thunder, fear of heights, and fear of certain surfaces. Younger dogs were more likely to display inattentive, hyperactive, and destructive behaviors compared to older dogs, frequently damaging stuff around the house or urinating indoors when left alone.

There were major differences in anxiety traits from breed to breed. For instance, 15.3% of border collies were fearful of heights compared to 38.7% of rough collies. Only 1.5% of Staffordshire bull terriers were afraid of strangers, whereas 27.5% of Spanish water dogs were fearful of new people. Labrador retrievers were the least aggressive, with only 0.4% exhibiting such tendencies. Meanwhile, 10.6% of miniature schnauzers showed significant aggression, making them the dogs with the highest prevalence of this behavioral trait out of all breeds involved in the study.

These behaviors have a major genetic component, the researchers wrote in the journal Scientific Reports. Relatives of compulsive dogs tend to share the same behaviors and previous studies have associated genomic areas with fear, noise sensitivity, and other problematic behaviors. Environmental factors such as training, physical activity, maternal care, and owner

Male dogs had a higher prevalence of aggressiveness, separation-related behavior, inattention, and hyperactivity/impulsivity. In contrast, female dogs had a higher prevalence of fearfulness, the study found.

Researchers also found that these behavioral problems were rarely alone and exhibited comorbidity. For instance, hyperactivity/impulsivity was correlated with inattention and compulsive behavior. Care to guess what other animals also show similar associations? Yup, humans.

Behaviour problems, especially aggressiveness, may be public health concerns. Some of these behaviour problems have been suggested to be analogous, or possibly even homologous to human anxiety disorders, and the study of these spontaneous behaviour problems arising in a shared environment with people may reveal important biological factors underlying many psychiatric conditions, the University of Helsinki scientists wrote.

The fact that so many dogs suffer from anxiety disorders might come as a surprise to many owners. In the future, the researchers plan on conducting more studies in order to identify which environmental and genetic factors are behind each anxiety-related canine trait.

Until then, dog owners should be more cognizant of these behaviors and take steps to mitigate them in order to improve their pets welfare. The researchers also advise people looking to adopt a dog of a certain breed to be mindful of their personality and underlying behavioral problems in order to match their own. For instance, if youre more sedentary you should pick a breed that is hyperactive and requires a lot of exercise. After all, owning a dog isnt all fun youre also responsible for their mental health and wellbeing.

Also, if your dog misbehaves due to their anxiety-related traits, the last thing you should do is punish them. A study published last month found that shouting at your dog caused canines to exhibit more stress-related behavior and showed a lower mood.

Excerpt from:
3 out of 4 dogs suffer from some form of anxiety, and owners should be more aware of this - ZME Science