266 posts · 212,032 views
Brains, behaviour, and evolution.
Zen Faulkes
266 posts
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- June 7, 2010
- 02:21 PM
- 955 views
Paper trail, or: Did they say that? Peer-reviewed journal edition
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
Everybody makes mistakes. But the peer-reviewed scientific literature tries to reduce mistakes by having fairly rigorous rules for citation. Citing original sources increases transparency and greatly facilitates fact-checking.
For instance, in one of our recent papers, we pointed out that a reference given in another paper did not support the point being made (as far as we could tell). Probably most practicing scientists have a story like that. But how common is that sort of error?
A new paper........ Read more »
Todd, P., Guest, J., Lu, J., & Chou, L. (2010) One in four citations in marine biology papers is inappropriate. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 299-303. DOI: 10.3354/meps08587
- June 3, 2010
- 06:45 PM
- 969 views
The all-seeing eye gazes upon the land of crickets
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
It’s good to be omniscient.
Only a few natural studies have been able to approach that level of knowledge. Peter and Rosemary Grant come fairly close in some seasons studying finches on the smaller Galapagos Islands. A new paper must must surely be a contender for god-like knowledge of a population of animals.
Rodríguez-Muñoz and colleagues basically became all-seeing and all-knowing to figure out what evolutionary pressures were being brought to bear on a population of crickets (Gryllus c........ Read more »
Rodriguez-Munoz, R., Bretman, A., Slate, J., Walling, C., & Tregenza, T. (2010) Natural and sexual selection in a wild insect population. Science, 328(5983), 1269-1272. DOI: 10.1126/science.1188102
- May 31, 2010
- 04:37 PM
- 973 views
Laying down boundaries for brain evolution in cichlids
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
Walter Garstang famously said that ontogeny creates phylogeny: you need to understand the development of a structure to understand the diversity of that structure across species.
There are a few different ways to change the way a structure is put together. Research on the development of limbs has tended to view morphological changes as being caused by changing boundaries that delineate different regions of the embryo. If you want a bigger forebrain, shift the boundary between the forebrain and ........ Read more »
Sylvester, J., Rich, C., Loh, Y., van Staaden, M., Fraser, G., & Streelman, J. (2010) Brain diversity evolves via differences in patterning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(21), 9718-9723. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1000395107
- May 31, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 766 views
Global warming, ocean acidification, and KO’d crayfish
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
What do global warming, ocean acidification, and KO’d crayfish have in common? Carbon dioxide.
A forthcoming paper by Biewbower and Cooper caught my eye because it incidentally supports a contention in the last paper I co-authored on crustacean nociception (Puri & Faulkes 2010). We couldn’t find any evidence that crustaceans responded to acids.
The new paper isn’t actually interested in acids; it’s all about what carbon dioxide does to crayfish. The first question is, can crayfish ........ Read more »
Bierbower, S., & Cooper, R. (2010) The effects of acute carbon dioxide on behavior and physiology in Procambarus clarkii. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology. DOI: 10.1002/jez.620
- May 28, 2010
- 05:26 PM
- 1,158 views
Dingoes do detours, dogs don’t
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
A picture like this used to adorn the office door of some of my fellow graduate students:
The original picture (minus the labels) was taken from a general biology textbook to illustrate detour problems. We look at that and think, “That’s easy. Run around the post. Silly dog.”
Dogs turn out to be fairly bad at detour problems. Squirrels, I understand, solve such problems in a heartbeat, given that they have evolved to navigate complex three-dimensional environments as they leap from bra........ Read more »
Smith, B., & Litchfield, C. (2010) How well do dingoes, Canis dingo, perform on the detour task?. Animal Behaviour. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.04.017
Lewejohann, L., Pickel, T., Sachser, N., & Kaiser, S. (2010) Wild genius - domestic fool? Spatial learning abilities of wild and domestic guinea pigs. Frontiers in Zoology, 7(1), 9. DOI: 10.1186/1742-9994-7-9
- May 12, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 939 views
The beginnings of bone
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
Bones have probably given us more evidence for evolution than almost anything else. But could bones also pose a problem for evolutionary biology?
The Times – not the New York Times, the original, singular Times – interviews frequent quotation workhorse for Texas young Earth creationists, dentist and outgoing State Board of Education member, Don McLeroy.
McLeroy is saying the same things he usually does, but this time, he actually said something a little more interesting if only because it........ Read more »
Donoghue, P., & Sansom, I. (2002) Origin and early evolution of vertebrate skeletonization. Microscopy Research and Technique, 59(5), 352-372. DOI: 10.1002/jemt.10217
Donoghue, P., Sansom, I., & Downs, J. (2006) Early evolution of vertebrate skeletal tissues and cellular interactions, and the canalization of skeletal development. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution, 306B(3), 278-294. DOI: 10.1002/jez.b.21090
Kawasaki, K., & Weiss, K. (2006) Evolutionary genetics of vertebrate tissue mineralization: the origin and evolution of the secretory calcium-binding phosphoprotein family. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution, 306B(3), 295-316. DOI: 10.1002/jez.b.21088
Ruben, J., & Bennett, A. (1987) The evolution of bone. Evolution, 41(6), 1187. DOI: 10.2307/2409087
Smith, M., & Hall, B. (1990) Development and evolutionary origins of vertebrate skeletogenic and odontogenic tissues. Biological Reviews, 65(3), 277-373. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-185X.1990.tb01427.x
- May 10, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 1,252 views
PubMed vs. Google Scholar
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
A comment on Twitter about PubMed left me wondering aloud why people use the thing instead of Google Scholar. This idle comment brought a surprising amount of comments.
Before I get to the comments, let me explain my point of view. I’ve never warmed to PubMed, although I know many of my peers use it multiple times daily. I suppose part of it is the “med” moniker. While PubMed does include a lot of the basic biological literature, it’s still fundamentally a medical resource. And I am not........ Read more »
Falagas, M., Pitsouni, E., Malietzis, G., & Pappas, G. (2007) Comparison of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar: strengths and weaknesses. The FASEB Journal, 22(2), 338-342. DOI: 10.1096/fj.07-9492LSF
Shultz, M. (2007) Comparing test searches in PubMed and Google Scholar. Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 95(4), 442-445. DOI: 10.3163/1536-5050.95.4.442
- May 3, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 927 views
Do octopuses feel pain as deeply as mammals?
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
The Everything Octopus blog provides, via People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an example of the low bar for scientific evidence in discussion around invertebrate pain. To be clear, I am in no way defending the practice described (eating live animals). I want to focus on this statement:
Because octopuses have sophisticated nervous systems and feel pain just as acutely as mammals do...
Octopuses and other cephalopods have sophisticated nervous systems, granted. I’ve written about their........ Read more »
Andrews, P., & Tansey, E. (1981) The effects of some anaesthetic agents in Octopus vulgaris. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part C: Comparative Pharmacology, 70(2), 241-247. DOI: 10.1016/0306-4492(81)90057-5
Kavaliers, M. (1988) Evolutionary and comparative aspects of nociception. Brain Research Bulletin, 21(6), 923-931. DOI: 10.1016/0361-9230(88)90030-5
Park, T., Lu, Y., Jüttner, R., Smith, E., Hu, J., Brand, A., Wetzel, C., Milenkovic, N., Erdmann, B., Heppenstall, P.... (2008) Selective Inflammatory Pain Insensitivity in the African Naked Mole-Rat (Heterocephalus glaber). PLoS Biology, 6(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060013
- April 26, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 1,186 views
Don’t mention abiogensis
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
“Origin” means beginning. So it’s unfortunate that the best known book on the subject of evolution is On the Origin of Species. Because the theory of evolution is not about the origin of life.
A recent article by Paz-y-Miño and Espinoza made that rookie mistake. And they got called on it. And quite right, too. The letter writers, Rice and colleagues, however, are upset not just because Paz-y-Miño and Espinoza use the theory too loosely.
They’re scared.
The first reason they give t........ Read more »
Paz-y-Miño C., G., & Espinosa, A. (2009) Acceptance of Evolution Increases with Student Academic Level: A Comparison Between a Secular and a Religious College. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 2(4), 655-675. DOI: 10.1007/s12052-009-0175-7
Rice, J., Warner, D., Kelly, C., Clough, M., & Colbert, J. (2010) The Theory of Evolution is Not an Explanation for the Origin of Life. Evolution: Education and Outreach. DOI: 10.1007/s12052-010-0225-1
- April 23, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 1,054 views
Big big love in wetas?
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
Weta is not just the name of a special effects studio; it’s the common name for one very large insect (pictured) that is found in New Zealand. Like many animals on New Zealand, it’s under a bit of pressure from introduced mammals, so there are definitely conservation implications if you can understand the mating system of the animal.
Wetas make an interesting case study for studying body size and mating, because they are large for their lineage, and there’s also a big size difference be........ Read more »
Kelly, C., Bussière, L., & Gwynne, D. (2010) Pairing and insemination patterns in a giant weta (Deinacrida rugosa: Orthoptera; Anostostomatidae). Journal of Ethology. DOI: 10.1007/s10164-010-0211-7
- April 19, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 1,219 views
Lemme see your war face!
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
People in the military are highly trained to perform at high levels under horrible situations. It’s a reasonable hypothesis to think that these individuals would have different cognitive performance and brain activity than civilians.
A new study by Paulus and colleagues tries to get inside the brains of some of these military personnel using the darling technique of the moment for humans, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
The authors recruited veteran Navy SEALs, and compared th........ Read more »
Paulus, M., Simmons, A., Fitzpatrick, S., Potterat, E., Van Orden, K., Bauman, J., & Swain, J. (2010) Differential Brain Activation to Angry Faces by Elite Warfighters: Neural Processing Evidence for Enhanced Threat Detection. PLoS ONE, 5(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010096
- April 14, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 731 views
Mind controlling an ant... with a fungus
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
Recently, I talked about a wasp that is able to use its venom to turn a cockroach from a freely moving individual into a soulless zombie. It’s a feat that stretches your imagination of how one animal could exert that much control over the nervous system of another.
As it happened, I cam across a paper that might just go one better. Another insect is the victim (an ant, this time), but the Svengali isn’t another animal. It’s a fungus.
The fungus is Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, here pictur........ Read more »
Andersen, S., Gerritsma, S., Yusah, K., Mayntz, D., Hywel‐Jones, N., Billen, J., Boomsma, J., & Hughes, D. (2009) The Life of a Dead Ant: The Expression of an Adaptive Extended Phenotype. The American Naturalist, 174(3), 424-433. DOI: 10.1086/603640
- April 12, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 1,005 views
Blondes beat brunettes on beach
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
The joke around some beach communities is that you can never be too thin, too rich, or too blonde. I don’t know about the first two, but a new paper suggests being blonde on a beach may be good, but you can be too blonde – if you’re a mouse.
Animal colours provide some classic cases of adaptation and natural selection. For instance, most people with even a passing familiarity with biology know about peppered moths and industrial melanism. Fur colour in mice isn’t quite as famous as moth........ Read more »
Vignieri, S., Larson, J., & Hoekstra, H. (2010) The selective advantage of crypsis in mice. Evolution. DOI: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.00976.x
- April 9, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 1,133 views
Mind controlling a cockroach
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
Mind control sounds impressive. But if you qualify that by saying, mind control of a cockroach, you might think, “Dude, it’s a roach. How hard can controlling its mind be?”
While roaches may not be among nature’s deepest thinkers, jewel wasps (Ampulex compressa, below) pull off an impressive level of control of a cockroach after the roach is stung. The wasp walks the roach to the wasp’s nest, lays an egg on the roach, and the roach remains inside the nest and allows itself to be eaten........ Read more »
Gal, R., & Libersat, F. (2010) A Wasp Manipulates Neuronal Activity in the Sub-Esophageal Ganglion to Decrease the Drive for Walking in Its Cockroach Prey. PLoS ONE, 5(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010019
- March 29, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 882 views
Desperado crickets
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
In Texas field crickets (Gryllus texensis), males come in two types: a flying long-winged form, and a non-flying short-winged form. These crickets’ forms are correlated with their interests in reproduction: short-wingers court females much more than fliers do. In this new paper, Guerra and Pollack predict the different interest of males in reproduction would be reflected in their willingness, and ability, to fight with other males.
Doesn’t that sound like a simple thing to test? You might t........ Read more »
Guerra, P., & Pollack, G. (2010) Colonists and desperadoes: different fighting strategies in wing-dimorphic male Texas field crickets. Animal Behaviour. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.02.002
- March 22, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 862 views
Beware, predator, I have ink!
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
If you were a predator trying to design the perfect food source, you’d probably want something that was slow moving, reasonably large, and had no annoying hard bits that you couldn’t really eat. In other words, it would probably looks something like a nudibranch mollusk. Nudibranchs are also known as sea slugs or sea hares, and at first glance, they look like snack packs for predators.
Of course, nudibranchs don’t take this lightly. Rather than physical defenses, they put up chemical ones........ Read more »
Nusnbaum, M., & Derby, C. (2010) Ink secretion protects sea hares by acting on the olfactory and nonolfactory chemical senses of a predatory fish. Animal Behaviour. DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2010.01.022
- March 18, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 510 views
Are big brains better for long trips?
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
For many birds, migration is a major component of life. You'd expect think that migration would have a whole cascade of effects on those birds, including the nervous system. But which way?
On the one hand, migration might be correlated with large brains to handle the the complex navigation tasks. On the other hand, migration might be correlated with small brains that are energetically efficient.
Sol and colleagues compared over six hundred species of birds (measuring over 4,000 skulls). Speci........ Read more »
Sol, D., Garcia, N., Iwaniuk, A., Davis, K., Meade, A., Boyle, W., & Székely, T. (2010) Evolutionary Divergence in Brain Size between Migratory and Resident Birds. PLoS ONE, 5(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009617
- March 10, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 829 views
Rattling neuroethology’s windows
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
As I’ve written recently, I don’t feel all that at home and comfortable in the field of neuroscience. I feel much more at home in the discipline of neuroethology, which investigates the neural bases of naturally occurring animal behaviour. It is populated by people who still appreciate diversity.
Having said that neuroethology is my intellectual home, I would like to rattle the windows in my own house a bit.
Neuroethology has a bunch of great people working on cool stories. And yet it is n........ Read more »
Bullock, T. (1999) Neuroethology has pregnant agendas. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 185(4), 291-295. DOI: 10.1007/s003590050389
- March 9, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 990 views
A neuron for free will
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
The question for neuroscience is how nervous systems generate behaviour and cognition. In general, we think there’s a hierachical command scheme, as the quick and dirty sketch below shows.
It’s been hard to move from general principles and “black boxes” to real neurons. A good chunk of effort in neuroethology has gone into understanding the sensory capabilities of different animals, and cracking how pattern generators could generate the detailed plan for movements, especially rhythmic ........ Read more »
Kagaya, K., & Takahata, M. (2010) Readiness Discharge for Spontaneous Initiation of Walking in Crayfish. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(4), 1348-1362. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4885-09.2010
- March 4, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 1,008 views
Can jellyfish see colour?
by Zen Faulkes in NeuroDojo
“Jellyfish? See colours? That’s crazy talk! They’d need eyes to do that! They don’t even have brains, do they?”
Some jellyfish do have eyes to go along with their well-developed central nervous system. These are box jellies, which are generally better known because some of their number contains rather deadly toxins. If that wasn’t scary enough, they have eyes. In fact, they have lots of eyes.
Rhophalia are sensory structures that you can see as black dots about two thirds of the wa........ Read more »
O'Connor, M., Garm, A., Marshall, J., Hart, N., Ekstrom, P., Skogh, C., & Nilsson, D. (2010) Visual pigment in the lens eyes of the box jellyfish Chiropsella bronzie. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.2248
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