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Behavior, Evolution, and Culture Speaker Series Mondays 12:00-1:30, Haines Hall 352, UCLA Lunch will be provided on a first-come,
first-serve basis; we request a $6 donation. The UCLA Center for Behavior, Evolution, & Culture relies on support from diverse academic organizations and contributions from members of the public. If, like us, you believe that the future of behavioral science lies in a consilience of perspectives united by evolutionary theory, you can join in the pursuit of this goal by making a financial contribution to the Center via our secure web site at https://giving.ucla.edu/bec. Feel free to contact Daniel Fessler, Director of the Center, if you would like to discuss how you can support the Center's mission. Dr. Fessler can be reached by email at dfessler "at" anthro.ucla.edu (insert the @ symbol yourself), or by phone at 310-794-9252. The coordinator of the speaker series is Clark Barrett. Dr. Barrett can be reached by email at barrett “at” anthro.ucla.edu (insert the @ symbol yourself) Videos are
available for many of our talks. Links for each recorded talk can be found
below underneath the abstract of the corresponding guest speaker. These
videos can also be watched or downloaded for free on iTunes. You can find us
at UCLA iTunes U under the category “Social Sciences” or you can search for
us by typing “ucla bec” into the iTunes search engine. Our iTunes U videos
may be downloaded to both iPods and iPhones. WINTER QUARTER 2010 04 January: Adriana Galvan UCLA Department of Psychology
Adolescence as a developmental period of increased
risk-taking and reward sensitivity: Insights from Neuroimaging
Adolescence
is a developmental period marked by heightened sensitivity to reward and
increased proclivity towards risk-taking behavior. These behavioral changes
are paralleled by significant developmental changes in neural circuitry
related to reward processing and cognitive control. In this talk, I will
describe recent data on adolescent brain development, propose a
neurobiological model to describe adolescent risk-taking behavior, and
provide a framework for how these neuroimaging insights might be used for
intervention and prevention of harmful risk-taking behaviors during
adolescence. WATCH THE VIDEO: Part 1 (Talk) Part 2 (Discussion)
11
January: Lynn Fairbanks UCLA
Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences
Genetic, Maternal and Life History Influences on
Sociability in Vervet Monkeys The ability
to form and maintain social relationships is an important attribute that has
broad implications for health and fitness in humans and nonhuman primates. In
this presentation, I will describe the development of a quantitative measure
of sociability in the Vervet Research Colony, a multigenerational pedigreed
colony of vervet monkeys, and present evidence for the consistency,
specificity and heritability of sociability as a trait. Mean Sociability
scores are affected by life history variables, including age, sex, male
emigration, and the presence of infants, but longitudinal analysis indicates
that individual differences are maintained over time and across life stages.
Because of the importance of matrilineal social relationships in primate
societies, including the social ‘inheritance’ of dominance rank for females,
there is a possibility of maternal environmental effects on sociability. To
account for this, we include a component for shared maternal environment in a
statistical genetics analysis to identify the contributions of genetic and
maternal effects on trait variation, using the extended pedigree. The results
indicate there are strong genetic contributions to variation in Sociability
scores for both males and females, with maternal effects accounting for a
smaller but statistically significant portion of the variance for females but
not for males. The final part of the presentation will provide evidence for
effects of variation in sociability on male reproductive success. WATCH THE VIDEO: Part 1 (Talk) Part 2 (Discussion) FRIDAY, 15 January: Tim
Waring UC Davis Department of Environmental
Science and Policy
Do Ethnic Divisions
Restrict Sustainable use of Natural Resources? A case study from Tamil
Nadu Numerous
scholars have shown that increasing ethnic diversity is correlated with
reduced cooperation and fewer public goods. This result has significant
implications for development policy, lowering expectations for success in
public infrastructure investment with ethnically diverse populations. I
present evidence that ethnic hierarchy may be driving the observed effect of
ethnic diversity. Ethnic hierarchy is naturally confounded with ethnic
diversity because hierarchy cannot logically exist without diversity and
because diversity without hierarchy may be exceedingly rare. To determine
which factor is a greater constraint on cooperation, I tested the strength of
both ethnic diversity and ethnic hierarchy as cooperative limitations using
public goods experiments with caste groups in South India. I show that the
effect of ethnic diversity is neutralized when relatedness between
individuals is taken into account. However, ethnic hierarchy remains severely
damaging to public goods cooperation, when all variables are accounted for,
and is a required variable for any explanatory model. Moreover, the influence
of social momentum is significant. I find that the initial behavior in the
game determines the long run outcome, while the cooperative momentum is
carried forward in the round-by-round decisions. Access the PowerPoint presentation (.pdf) WATCH THE VIDEO: Part 1 (Talk) Part 2 (Discussion) 18
January: HOLIDAY 25 January: Nameera Akhtar UCSC
Department of Psychology
Children's learning from third-party interactions
Parents and
researchers in Western middle-class societies emphasize dyadic interactions
and teaching children new skills directly. This emphasis obscures the fact
that young children can learn much through observation of others’
interactions. I will describe the results of several recent studies of young
children’s learning from third-party interactions. Some of the studies
examine learning novel words through overhearing others involve the learning
of novel actions (imitative learning). The findings indicate that learning
from third-party interactions is a robust skill seen in children as young as
18 months, and suggest that this type of learning may rely on emerging
social-cognitive skills that enable the child to imagine herself in the
third-party interaction. 01
February: Eric Vilain Professor of Human Genetics, Pediatrics and Urology
Director, Center for Gender-Based Biology, Chief, Medical Genetics -
Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Gaynomics: The Biology of Sexual Orientation Human
sexual orientation, one’s preference for male or female sexual partners, is a
largely stable behavioral trait with a significant genetic component. It is a
highly sexually dimorphic trait, and as such an interesting model for brain
sexual differentiation. There is
much uncertainty about the factors that shape sexual orientation. Although many studies have helped to
explain the experience of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals,
empirically supported explanations for the development of an LGB identity are
lacking. Often the
media hypes the results of biological research on sexual orientation. Yet,
the reports on biological findings are filtered through the journalists’
understanding of the science and at times are misrepresented. Further, parties who are both for and
against the rights of sexual minorities reinterpret these media reports. This can make it difficult to sort fact
from fiction. The purpose
of this presentation is to provide an overview on what the biological
research has shown in regards to sexual orientation, to assess the current
state of the research, and to highlight strengths/limitations of this
research. To accomplish this, four
main areas will be considered. Hormones:
Research has investigated whether prenatal hormones affect sexual
orientation. Although hormones have an
impact on behavior, only gross hormonal variations seem to affect sexual
orientation. Anatomical
associations: Despite media attention, evidence that
non-heterosexual individuals have distinctive anatomical features is far from
conclusive. In regards to the
anatomical association studies, only non-right handedness and specific
anatomical features of the hypothalamus have a consistent relationship with a
non-heterosexual orientation. Birth
order: A consistent
finding is that having an older brother increases the odd of male
homosexuality. Differing theoretical
viewpoints on this issue will be discussed.
Genetics: Finally, the most promising
evidence for biological influences comes from recent advances in the field of
genetics. The validity of studies using “family trees” and the potential role
of the expression of genes on sexual orientation will be discussed. Finally, twin studies will be reviewed, as
well our own epigenetic data on twin pairs discordant for sexual orientation. 08
February: Karen
Bales UC
Davis Department of Psychology Neurobiology of parenting in monogamous species In socially
monogamous mammals like humans, many individuals such as mothers, fathers,
and alloparents often display parenting behaviors. While the hormonal and
neural basis of maternal care has been well-studied, both fathering and
alloparenting remain more mysterious. Studies from prairie voles and titi
monkeys, both monogamous mammals, implicate oxytocin, vasopressin, and
glucocorticoids in the regulation of these behaviors. While these hormones
may facilitate parenting, developmental data also suggest that the exposure
to infants itself changes the brain in a long-term fashion in both males and
females. I will discuss what is known about the neurobiology of parenting in
males, females, and alloparents, and what opportunities and challenges exist
in studying these topics in humans 15 February: HOLIDAY
22 February: Peter Kim USC Department of Management and Organization, Marshall
School of Business, University of Southern California
The Manifestation
of Mob Mentalities 01 March: Russell Gray University of Auckland Department of Psychology
TBA 08 March: Peter Fashing CSU Fullerton Department of
Anthropology Behavioral ecology of East African primates: Costs and
benefits of group living in colobus and gelada monkey societies Given that animal societies
represent a collection of genetically selfish individuals that have come
together to live and reproduce as part of a group, conflicts over the
allocation of resources essential to survival and reproduction must routinely
occur. For groups to remain stable over evolutionary time, these conflicts
must be resolved to the satisfaction of all group members – that is, the
benefits of group life must outweigh the costs. In this
talk, I will describe my past, present and future research into the costs and
benefits of group living for individuals and groups of wild primates, including
colobus and gelada monkeys, in East Africa, and discuss how insights gained
from non-invasive, observational sampling of primate behavior and ecology can
shed light on the evolution of group living in humans and other animals. FALL
QUARTER 2009 28 September: Aaron Sell UCSB Department of Psychology
An
evolutionary-computational model of human anger
Anger can be understood as a
cognitive mechanism designed by natural selection to negotiate conflicts of
interest in ways similar to, but distinct from, non-human animal conflict.
The Recalibrational Theory of anger uses an evolutionary biological
framework to predict the major features of anger and explain their
computational structure by reference to this function. Datasets
collected from five distinct cultures address the major features of anger
including under what conditions anger is evoked, when aggression is used by
the anger system, which individuals set lower thresholds for anger and
aggression, why and how anger triggers modifications of the face and voice,
and how one predicts and explains the computational structure of anger-based
arguments. The data demonstrate that anger is a well-designed system
for recalibrating targets in ways that minimize immediate and future costs
resulting from conflicts of interest.
5 October: Greg
Hickok UC Irvine Cognitive Sciences & Center
for Cognitive Neuroscience
On the nature of auditory-motor
interaction in speech processing: implications for the interpretation of
mirror neurons and beyond There are two ideas regarding how
auditory and motor speech systems interact in language processing. A
popular view in the neuroscience community is that motor systems play an
important role in the perception of speech. This is an old
idea that has been largely (if not completely) abandoned on empirical grounds
by the speech science community. However, the discovery of mirror
neurons in the macaque brain has resurrected the hypothesis among
neuroscientists. The other idea regarding auditory-motor interaction comes
out of the motor control literature which has provided compelling evidence
that the auditory system plays an important role in speech production.
I will review the evidence, current and past, for these two hypotheses
and conclude (i) the motor system is not necessary for speech perception,
(ii) the motor system may be able to exert a top-down influence on auditory
speech perception system but the evidence remains inconclusive and even if
real the effects are relatively minor, (iii) there is strong evidence for the
reverse relation, that auditory systems play a critical role in aspects of
speech production. I will also review a number of fMRI and lesion
studies aimed at mapping the cortical circuit supporting sensory-motor
interaction in speech processing. WATCH THE VIDEO: Part
1 (Talk) Part
2 (Discussion) 12 October: Bruce Bridgeman UC Santa Cruz Department of
Psychology Treading a Slippery
Slope: Slant Perception in Near and Far Space Estimation of slope is an everyday
tool for navigating the external world. Previous studies have found that
slopes are overestimated more greatly with a verbal than with a
proprioceptive measure. Since some neurons in the premotor cortex
respond differently to objects within arm’s reach, we hypothesized that slope
estimation may also be affected by neural pathways that respond differently
to identical visual information at different
distances. Alternatively, vision may be warning us about the
greater effort required to walk up a slope. Verbal estimates greatly
overestimated the actual slope, and increased logarithmically with
distance from the participant, contradicting both theories. Proprioceptive
estimates were more accurate. When participants experience a slope
directly by walking up and down a hill prior to making estimates, their
estimates remain unchanged. Increases in perceived slope with distance
depend upon range of the segment judged, not length of the segment. The
results can be interpreted as an implicit slope, previously measured only in
darkness, modulated by depth cues available at near distances. Access the PowerPoint presentation (.pdf) WATCH THE VIDEO: Part 1 (Talk) Part 2 (Discussion) 19 October: Steve Frank UC Irvine
& Santa Fe Institute Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Demography and
timescale in social evolution
Current studies of biological sociality
tend to ignore two key factors: the consequences of social traits on
long-term aspects of survival and fecundity (demography), and the tension
between short and long time scales of success. I use several examples from
the biology of microbes to illustrate these fundamental processes of
sociality, which apply to any problem that can be framed in terms of natural
selection or economic efficiency. For those interested in the particular
biological examples, here is a brief summary. Microbes secrete molecules to
modify their environment. Secretions dislodge and bind iron, manipulate host
defenses, build protective biofilm structures, and communicate information to
neighboring microbes. Successful modulation of the environment and successful
communication require collective action by a large population of microbes.
Recent studies show that kin or group selection powerfully shapes the ways in
which microbes collectively communicate and modify their environment. Others
studies have shown that the basic design of metabolism and cellular
biochemistry may also be influenced by social processes. Competition favors
fast extraction and use of resources, reducing metabolic efficiency and
leading to low yield per unit of resource. I place these microbial processes
into the broad framework of economic and life history theories of biology. I
also show that demographic and timescale processes lead to new predictions
about microbial pathogenesis and metabolism. 26 October: Andrew Shaner UCLA Semel Institute – Psychiatry
and Biobehavioral Sciences; Deputy Chief of Psychiatry and Mental Health, VA Greater Autism
as the low-fitness extreme of a parentally selected fitness indicator In many species, siblings compete
for parental care and feeding, while parents must allocate scarce resources
to those offspring most likely to survive and reproduce. This could cause
offspring to evolve traits that advertise health, and thereby attract
parental resources. For example, experimental evidence suggests that
bright orange filaments covering the heads of North American coot chicks may
have evolved for this fitness-advertising purpose. Suppose that the
ability of infants and very young children to charm their parents evolved as
a parentally selected fitness indicator. Young children would vary
greatly in their ability to charm parents, that variation would correlate
with underlying fitness, and autism could be the low-fitness extreme of this
variation. This general version of our
hypothesis can explain why autism begins in childhood, why it is highly
heritable, why the responsible genes have been so hard to find, why it is
more common in boys and more severe in girls and why it is associated with
environmental hazards, developmental abnormalities and increased
mortality. Among its predictions is that autism will be more common in
populations with historically high rates of genetic polyandry. In addition to the general
hypothesis, suppose that a key component of charm involves infant social
behaviors that prolong breast feeding and thereby delay conception of a
younger sibling. If true, this would explain why autism impairs social
abilities so early and so profoundly. It would also predict that (1)
within populations, age at onset of autism will parallel age at onset of
weaning, (2) autism will be associated with scarce environmental resources
and early weaning, (3) delaying weaning will protect against autism (4) close
relatives will show higher variance in infant social ability (including its
anatomical and neurophysiological bases), and in subsequent birth interval,
and (5) infant social ability will correlate positively with both underlying
fitness and parental resource allocation (e.g., intensity and duration of
breast-feeding). WATCH THE VIDEO: Part 1 (Talk) Part 2 (Discussion) 02 November: Steve Neuberg Arizona State University
Department of Psychology Toward a
Functional, Affordance-Centered Model of Person Perception, Prejudices, and
Social Interaction: Taking into Account Life History and Ecological
Considerations
WATCH THE VIDEO: Part 1 (Talk) Part 2 (Discussion) 09 November: Katerina Semendeferi UCSD
Department of Anthropology Neuroanatomical
perspectives on the evolution of the mind The organ of the mind, the brain, is
the focus of several fields of study. This lecture will address the role of
neuroanatomy in reconstructions of cognitive evolution. It will present new
data on the internal organization of the brain of humans and great apes and
will revisit, in a critical light, some of the older data sets widely used in
primate evolutionary studies. The lecture will address the challenges of
reconstructing cognitive evolution based on animals like the apes that cannot
be studied invasively, the significance of including closely related
taxonomic groups in studies of human evolution and the issues involved in
transferring brain/mind data from animal models to hominids that are
characterized by differences in brain size and socioecological adaptations.
16 November: John Novembre UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology & Interdepartmental Program in Bioinformatics
Spatial population
structure and the genetic basis of adaptation in human populations *Co-Sponsored
by the UCLA Center for Society & Genetics WATCH THE VIDEO: Part 1 (Talk) Part
2 (Discussion) 23 November: David Liu UCSD Department of Psychology
Asking "do X
have a theory of mind?" is not precisely the right question: Mental-state understanding is not yes or no Much research and debate around
theory of mind (the ability to attribute mental states to actions) have revolved
around whether X have a theory of WATCH THE VIDEO: Part 1 (Talk) Part
2 (Discussion) 30 November: Catherine Reed Claremont-McKenna College
Department of Psychology The Role of Specialized Body Processing for
Embodied Social Perception Social psychologists have embraced
the tenants of embodied cognition to explain how we understand the emotions
of others. They claim that the reinstantiation of previous sensorimotor experience
during emotional and social information processing is an essential process
for understanding others’ emotions (e.g., Neidenthal, Barsalou, Winkielman,
Krauth-Gruber, & Ric, 2005). In this talk I suggest that current models
of embodied emotion are missing the necessary body-processing mechanisms from
which the simulations of emotional experience operate. Further, if one
cannot create the basic correspondences between another person’s body and
one’s own then one cannot engage in the appropriate simulation process which
can lead to social-emotional deficits such as those observed in autism
spectrum disorders. WATCH THE VIDEO: Part
1 (Talk) Part
2 (Discussion) LINKS TO PREVIOUS YEARS’
The Behavior, Evolution, and Culture
Speaker Series is generously supported by: Primary
Sponsors: Secondary Sponsors: UCLA
Department of Anthropology UCLA
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Tertiary
Sponsors:
Everyone
is welcome to attend. To
be added to the
For
related groups at UCLA, see the Center
for Culture, Brain, and Development , the Program for Psychocultural
Studies and Medical Anthropology, the UCLA Center for Society and Genetics, Social
Psychology , and Animal
Behavior. Some
papers to be discussed may be in PDF format, which can be read only if you
have previously downloaded the free Adobe
Acrobat Reader . This
page is maintained by Leo Tiokhin. Email: Ltiokhin "at" ucla.edu
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