Beyond Broca’s area: why undergraduate neuroscience education matters

Patients with psychiatric illness often present a unique challenge to medical students: in contrast to some medical conditions, in which patients may seem to be stricken by a disease, patients with certain psychiatric illnesses may seem complicit with the illness. Questions of free will, choice, and the role of the physician can quickly become overwhelming. This may result in students feeling helpless, disinterested, or even resentful. Here we argue that integrating a modern neuroscience perspective into medical education allows students to conceptualize psychiatric patients in a way that promotes empathy and enhances patient care. Specifically, a strong grasp of neuroscience prevents the future physician from falling into dualistic thinking in which the psychosocial aspects of a patient’s presentation are considered beyond the realm of medicine. The value of incorporating neuroscience into a full, biopsychosocial formulation is demonstrated with the case example of a “difficult patient.

The first records of coenagrionid damselflies (Odonata: Zygoptera: Coenagrionidae: Neoerythromma sp. and Nehalennia sp.) from Mexican Amber (Miocene)

Two specimens of the damselfly (Odonata: Zygoptera) family Coenagrionidae are described from Mexican amber of early Miocene age, identified as Neoerythromma sp. and Nehalennia sp. They constitute the first records of the family Coenagrionidae from this amber, and the first fossil records of the genera Neoerythromma and Nehalennia

An aid to accessing the distal internal carotid artery

Accessing the distal internal carotid artery can be a challenge to even the most experienced vascular surgeon. In most patients, the need for distal exposure can be anticipated in advance, thereby enabling the surgeon to consider simple measures, such as nasolaryngeal intubation, or more complex interventions, such as temporomandibular subluxation, to facilitate access. Once the procedure is underway, however, neither of these strategies can be used. The advantage of the approach described in this article is that it can be used at any time during the operation

Sensory Exploitation And Indicator Models May Explain Red Pelvic Spines In The Brook Stickleback, Culaea Inconstans

Background: Sensory bias models explaining the evolution of sexually selected traits predict that trait preferences evolve as an artifact of a pre-existing preference for certain components of the environment such as specifically coloured prey. Indicator models, in contrast, predict that sexually selected traits indicate mate condition. We investigate the potential for sensory exploitation and condition indication models to explain the evolution of what appears to be a recently evolved sexually selected trait. Question: Did red pelvic spine coloration in male Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge (TNWR) brook stickleback (Culaea inconstans) evolve to exploit a pre-existing sensory bias for red prey, thus helping males draw females to the nest? Or, did it evolve as an intersexual signal indicating male condition to females? Methods: We recorded the frequency of red pelvic spine coloration in males versus females and in breeding versus non-breeding males. We measured the condition factor of males with and without red coloration on their pelvic spines. We presented fish with a paired choice between a red versus an orange, yellow, green, blue, or purple bead, and recorded the proportion of bites at each colour. Results: Red coloration was significantly more common in males than in females and in males during the breeding season than outside the breeding season. Males with strongly red pelvic spines have a significantly higher mean condition factor than those with plain spines. TNWR brook stickleback prefer red to other colours in a predation context. Conclusions: Our results suggest that TNWR brook stickleback red pelvic spine coloration is a secondary sexual character that may exploit a pre-existing sensory bias for red prey while also indicating condition to females

Earwigs (Dermaptera) from the Mesozoic of England and Australia, described from isolated tegmina, including the first species to be named from the Triassic

Dermaptera (earwigs) are described from the Triassic of Australia and England, and from the Jurassic and Cretaceous of England. Phanerogramma heeri (Giebel) is transferred from Coleoptera and it and Brevicula gradus Whalley are re-described. Seven new taxa are named based on tegmina: Phanerogramma australis sp. nov. and P. dunstani sp. nov. from the Late Triassic of Australia; P. gouldsbroughi sp. nov. from the Triassic/Jurassic of England; Brevicula maculata sp. nov. and Trivenapteron moorei gen. et sp. nov. from the Early Jurassic of England; and Dimapteron corami gen et sp. nov. and Valdopteron woodi gen. et sp. nov. from the Early Cretaceous of England. Phanerogramma, Dimapteron and Valdopteron are tentatively placed in the family Dermapteridae, and Trivenapteron is incertae sedis. Most of the specimens of Phanerogramma heeri are from the Brodie Collection and labelled ‘Lower Lias'; however, some were collected from the underlying Penarth Group, thus this species spans the Triassic/Jurassic boundary. The palaeobiogeography of the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic of England is discussed

What Do We Mean by “Transformation”?

What is “defense transformation” (by whatever name), and how might it affect strategy? What might it cost, and how could its cost affect military forces? What systemic impediments to implementation does it face, and what are its competitors in the budgetary realm? A distinguished panel of the Secretary of the Navy’s Current Strategy Forum held at the Naval War College on 12–13 June 2001 addressed these issues from various perspectives