Abstracts of Papers, 88th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science

Full list of Abstracts from the 88th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 20 - 21, 2010, James Madison University Harrisonburg, V

The social organisation and behaviour of the striped field-mouse Rhabdomys Pumilio (Sparrman 1784) : studies in captivity and in the field

Includes bibliography at end of thesis.In Part I of this study, the social organisation and cormnunicative behaviour of the striped field-mouse Rhabdomys pumilio was studied in a large outdoor cage. It was found that the social organisation was based on a male dominance hierarchy, with the development of territory in the dominant male and breeding females. The level of testosterone in males was found to be a reliable index of social status. Analysis of spatial relationships and behavioural interactions among individuals showed these factors to be closely related to social status. Rhabdomys was found to have a well-developed repertoire of visual displays, to use ultrasonic calls in social interactions, and to be dependent, to a certain extent, on chemical communication. In Part II, an attempt was made to confirm these findings in the field. Home ranges on the Cape Flats were determined by tracking; testosterone was used as an index of. social statua. Similarly structured hierarchies were found, as well as indications of territoriality. Home range sizes, distribution and spatial relationships of individuals were determined. Rhabdomys was found to prefer habitats of good ground cover

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF ART: AN EXAMINATION OF UNIQUENESS

The field of Neuroaesthetics has an overwhelming potential for helping us to understand the world and human behavior through consideration of both neuroscience and art. Looking at the production of art across human history, it is clear we have evolved with art as every culture has developed some style and desire for art without influence of other peoples. The intriguing and undeniable psychological phenomenon of pareidolia raises the question of why the visual system might be set up in a way that leads to illusions and visual suggestions. The amygdala is also involved as the nuclei’s reaction to perceived or imagined threats causes intense body changes. Art, as a rewarding experience, could then be seen as biologically necessary to offer some release of dopamine and a “feeling good” response. I argue that the human brain was evolutionarily designed for art. Many animals can be taught to make human-styled art using both painting and drawing techniques. Animals also make their own style of art as it is clear there is deliberate choice in the spider’s web when it comes to spatial design. In most species of birds, nest building is a learned behavior and this, coupled with the variation in nest structure, reveals the high levels of choices birds make in the design of their nest. And finally, when looking at bees and the construction of their hives, their abilities far surpass what we commonly think possible. Thus, when looking at the products of spiders, birds, and bees, these animals have aesthetic composition preferences in the design of the structures they make. Therefore, while art is not unique only to humankind, art is necessary to humankind

Sweet Spots

Sweet Spots thinks transversally across language and body, and between text and tissue. This assemblage of essays collectively proposes that words—that is, language that lands as written text—are more-than-human material. And, these materials, composed of forces and flows and tendencies, are capable of generating text-flesh that grows into a thinking in the making. The practice of acupuncture—and its relational thinking—often makes its presence felt to twirl the text-tissue of the bodying essays. Ficto-critical thinking is threaded throughout to activate concepts from process philosophy and use the work of other thinkers (William James, Félix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze, Baruch Spinoza, and Virginia Woolf, to name a few) to forge imaginative connections. Entangled in the text-tissue are an assortment of entities, such as bickering body parts, quivering jellyfish, heart pacemaker cells, a narwhal tooth, Taoist parables, always with ubiquitous, stretchy connective tissue — from gooey interstitial fluid to thick planes of fascia — ever present to ensure that the essaying bodies become, what Alfred North Whitehead calls the one-which-includes-the-many-includes-the-one. The essaying bodies orient towards the sweetest sweet spot which is found, not in the center, but slightly askew, felt in the reverbing more-than that carries their potential. Crucially, this produces a shift in perspective away from self-enclosed bodies and experts toward a care for the connective tissue of relation