Humanity

Life Stages Of The Brain

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Life Stages Of The Brain

3/5/21 by NPR

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/119970259
Episode: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-510298/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/ted/2021/03/20210304_ted_tedpod-brainstages.mp3

In each stage of life, our brains morph and change. This hour, TED speakers explore pivotal chapters where the brain can either flourish or decline – and what control we might have over brain health. Guests include neuroscientists Kimberly Noble, Adriana Galván, Sandrine Thuret, and Lisa Mosconi.

Preppers with their pants down

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Preppers with their pants down … 👖

I follow some prepper groups on the Facebook, and I have to get a chuckle from the preppers down south in Texas and other states that really struggled with the cold. It seems like a lot of preppers are more concerned about zombie attacks and armed insurrections then practical things like black outs or severe weather that pose a much more immediate risk people’s life and well being.

Neanderthals could hear and make the same sounds as humans, new research suggests – CNN

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Neanderthals could hear and make the same sounds as humans, new research suggests – CNN

A virtual reconstruction of the ear in a modern human (left) and a Neanderthal skull. Whether Neanderthals, and other human ancestors, were capable of sophisticated spoken language has been a topic of long-standing debate in human evolution. A virtual reconstruction of the ear in a modern human (left) and a Neanderthal skull. Whether Neanderthals, and other human ancestors, were capable of sophisticated spoken language has been a topic of long-standing debate in human evolution.

(CNN)Forget those brutish caveman grunts. Neanderthals, our closest ancestors, could have produced the same sounds as humans today, according to a study modeling the hearing ability of the Stone Age hominins that went extinct about 40,000 years ago. Whether Neanderthals, and other human ancestors, were capable of sophisticated spoken language has been a topic of long-standing debate in human evolution. New research published on Monday suggests that Neanderthals had a vocal communication system that could have been similar to human speech.

"Neandertals could have produced all the sounds in that frequency range, like we can. There does not seem to be any difference in their ability to produce speech sounds. So they definitely could have said 'hello' or 'ok' if those utterances had any meaning for them," said Rolf Quam, an associate professor and director of the evolutionary studies program at Binghamton University in New York, in an email.

Inherited Learning? It Happens, but How Is Uncertain

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Inherited Learning? It Happens, but How Is Uncertain

As a biological concept, the inheritance of acquired characteristics has had a wild roller coaster ride over the past two centuries. Championed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck at the beginning of the 19th century, it soared to widespread popularity as a theory of inheritance and an explanation for evolution, enduring even after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. Then experimental tests, the rise of Mendelian genetics, and the wealth of discoveries substantiating chromosomal DNA as the principal medium of genetic information in complex organisms all but buried the idea until the mid-20th century. Since then, the theory has found at least a limited new respectability with the rise of “epigenetics” (literally, around or on top of genetics) as an explanation for some inherited traits.

Most recently, some researchers have found evidence that even some learned behaviors and physiological responses can be epigenetically inherited. None of the new studies fully address exactly how information learned or acquired in the somatic tissues is communicated and incorporated into the germline. But mechanisms centering around small RNA molecules and forms of hormonal communication are actively being investigated.

Can Experiences Leave A Biological Imprint?

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The more Legacy of Trauma: Can Experiences Leave A Biological Imprint?

2/25/21 by NPR

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/119615576
Episode: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-510351/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/dailyscience/2021/02/20210225_dailyscience_sci_pod_-_epigenetics_-_final_mix_w__xpromo.mp3?awCollectionId=510351&awEpisodeId=947232031&orgId=1&topicId=1007&d=662&p=510351&story=947232031&t=podcast&e=947232031&size=10582626&ft=pod&f=510351

Descendants of trauma victims seem to have worse health outcomes. Could epigenetics explain why? Bianca Jones Marlin and Brian Dias walk us through the field of epigenetics and its potential implications in trauma inheritance.

Coping With Intrusive Thoughts

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Coping With Intrusive Thoughts

According to a post on the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) website co-authored by Sally Winston, Psychologist and Founder/Co-Director of the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland, intrusive thoughts are sudden onset “stuck thoughts that cause great distress,” often focused on scary, sexual, violent, or socially unacceptable images, or even thoughts that go against one’s belief system. They can be anything that strikes you as truly horrifying.

But the good news is, for most of us, these thoughts hold no significance whatsoever, and they can — and do — happen to everyone. “Everybody has thoughts that kind of go against who they are,” says Jonathan S. Abramowitz, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an author of studies on intrusive thoughts.

Abramowitz says intrusive thoughts can be made up of all kinds of troublesome scenarios. “A normal intrusive thought would be, you're sitting around and your wife told you that she was going to be home by 4:00 and now it's 4:15. The thought goes through your mind — what if she had a car accident? You get an image of her body thrown on the street and broken glass everywhere. It's a terribly upsetting idea. Or, you're married or involved in an intimate relationship, and you think — what if I cheated on my partner? Or, people who are very religious will often have some sort of blasphemous image about who they worship, or about acting out in their house of worship,” he explains.