American Science Idol

A discussion on stress, neurodegeneration and individual differences led by Dr. Robert Sapolsky from the department of biological sciences at Stanford University.

What our genes tell us

This article by Malcolm Ritter address some interesting points when considering they “why” and “how” of cognitive differences between humans and animals.

Humans and chimps have evolved separately since splitting from a common ancestor about 6 million years ago, and their DNA remains highly similar — about 96 percent to almost 99 percent identical, depending on how the comparison is made.

Still, the number of genetic differences between a human and a chimp is about 10 times more than between any two humans, the federal genome institute says. It’s the differences — some 40 million — that attract the attention of scientists.

Scientists like Svante Paabo of the Max Planck institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who is quoted as saying

“I’m still sort of taken aback by how similar humans and chimps are” in their DNA. “I’m still amazed, when I see how special humans are and how we have taken over this planet, that we don’t find stronger evidence for a huge difference in our genomes.”

Dog Manners

See a smart bird in action

Video of crow using tools. 

Courtesy of corvidcognition

Are you smarter than a fifth grader? How about a bird or a chimp?

A paper published in Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society examines the different approaches of evaluating avian behavior and how it relates to intelligence.

The idea that the six-layered neocortex of most mammals is the prerequisite for complex cognition still pervades popular culture. Indeed, intellectually less endowed individuals in Western society are often called ‘bird-brains’. Perhaps more surprisingly, this view is still held by many comparative psychologists and neuroscientists. One reason for this long-held, but ultimately incorrect view is the confusing terminology used to name the different regions of the avian telencephalon (forebrain). Traditionally, regions in the avian cerebrum ended with the suffix—striatum, meaning derived from the basal ganglia (figure 1a). As the vertebrate basal ganglia is involved in  peciesspecific behaviours, such as maternal care, sexual behaviour and feeding (Reiner et al. 1998), bird-brains were deemed incapable of producing flexible or intelligent behaviour. It is now known that this nomenclature is based on a fallacy; large parts of the avian forebrain are derived, not from the striatum, but from the pallium (figure 1b). Interestingly, the mammalian neocortex is also derived from the pallium (Jarvis & Consortium 2005). This places the avian forebrain into a new light, where bird behaviour may now be explained as an adaptation to solving socioecological problems similar to mammals, possessing hardware that is different to mammals, albeit evolved from the same structure. Pepperberg (1999) provides a useful computer analogy when comparing mammalian and avian brains; mammalian brains are like IBM-PCs, whereas avian brains are like Apple Macintoshes; the wiring and processing are different, but the resulting output (i.e. behaviour) is similar.

Monk Parakeets in Hyde Park - interview with biologist

Download audio   Stephen Pruett-Jones, associate professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, gives some insight into how a tropical species of bird can survive in Chicago.

Download transcript

Interview with an evolutionary biologist

Mongabay.com has posted a really great interview with Karen Strier, a professor in the anthropology an the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Her research is an excellent example of how researchers use population genetics to investigate some really interesting questions.  Strier has been researching the Northern Muriqui primates of Brazil for over two decades.

A fantastic book!

An engrossing tale of Robert Sapolsky’s adventures and research in Africa includes heartwarming and heartbreaking accounts of his life while studying baboons to learn more about stress-related disease and its relationship to behavior.     In A Primate’s Memoir, stories of baboon love triangles are mingled with descriptions of scientific behavioral research and methods. 

“Nick joined the troop during the unstable years.  He was still and adolescent and you could almost read the contempt on his face as he watched the foibles of his elders playing Keystone Kops….In a fight one day, he trounced the easily intimidated Reuben, who in a gesture of submission, stuck his ass up in the air.  Now, every baboon on earth knows what that means.  It means you give up, your conceding, uncle, no mas.  And every baboon on earth knows that at that pint, the winner is supposed to merely examine your bottom or mount you, or something conventionally demeaning like that, and it’s all over with….at the last second, Nick leans over and gives him a deep slash in the ass with his canines.  Those happy-go lucky stable years were over with a vengeance.” 

In an exciting exploration of behavioral similarities and differences between humans and primates, Sapolsky investigates what mechanisms underlie such behaviors. His accounts of baboon troop social dynamics are entertaining and fascinating. 

Eviction notice for Spot

According to an article in the Chicago Sun- Times, some area shelters are seeing the number of animals being sent to shelters because of the owner’s financial turmoil is on the rise.  It seems that as the sub-prime mortgage situation worsens, people must sell their homes and may not be able to find apartments that allow animals. 

The article emphasizes foster care for animals as an alternative to shelters or abandoning the animals, which has happened in some cases.  This allows the owners to step back and regain some control of their finances while providing a home for their pets.

The Chicago Canine Rescue Foundation’s website discusses foster care for animals in Chicago and has some helpful information.

Issues in animal research

There are many strong feelings on both sides of the argument over using animals in research.  There are many people who accept animal research as necessary for furthering knowledge that is capable of saving lives and helping us understand more about human psychology and evolution.  Recently, there has been more work done to provide animals used in research with the more natural and stimulating environments to minimize the negative effects of life in captivity.