From Norway with Love: A Study of Oxytocin, Social Bonding, and Life-history Trade-offs

Oxytocin (OT) is a mammalian neuropeptide hormone that has been extensively studied in the field of obstetrics and mother-infant bonding. More recently, animal and human studies have suggested that OT might also have important functions within sexual pair-bonds. While some have advanced the perspective that OT is a ‘bonding’, ‘cuddle’, or ‘trust’ hormone, a number of opposing findings cast doubt on such interpretations. Several research groups have attempted to address this so-called ‘paradox’. I propose a different type of framework that attempts to address this paradox, but perhaps more importantly, also aims to provide additional explanatory power regarding the functions of OT within human romantic relationships—and perhaps other types of close bonds, as well. This theoretical framework has four central properties. First, it considers the adaptive design of the OT system as a central issue; OT should be ‘tagged’ to specific intimate social partners such as offspring or mates, rather than functioning as a general-purpose hormone for prosociality. Second, it builds upon theoretical models in evolutionary biology suggesting that endocrine hormones function as messengers coordinating biological activity across an organism in an adaptive fashion. Third, it emphasizes the inevitability of trade-offs in an organism’s energy allocation decisions, and proposes that hormones evolved, in part, to mediate these trade-offs. Fourth, it also emphasizes the contingency of biological responses on appraisals of environmental conditions, such as current budgets and future resource availability. To test these ideas, I recruited 148 Norwegian participants in committed romantic relationships and assessed how facets of one’s romantic relationship, perceptions of assistance from the ‘Nordic Welfare State’, and investment in social bonding outside the romantic relationship predicted changes in OT across a thought-writing task regarding one’s partner. Results were mixed. Replicating a recent finding in American couples (Grebe et al., 2016), participants who were highly involved in their relationships, but felt that their partner was less involved, had the largest OT increases across the task. In other words, OT increases reflected discrepancies between assessments of self and partner relationship involvement. Across multiple measures, there was no consistent indication that perceptions and attitudes regarding state welfare, either alone or interacting with relationship involvement, influenced OT responses. Finally, individuals with stronger OT responses, and who reported greater discrepancies in romantic relationship involvement, reported less interest in certain kinds of social bonding outside the relationship, consistent with a trade-off between classes of social bonding effort. In light of these results, I discuss the value of replication in psychological research, strengths and weaknesses of the proposed theoretical framework, and potential directions for future research

High density lipoprotein mediates anti-inflammatory transcriptional reprogramming of macrophages via the transcriptional repressor ATF3

High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) mediates reverse cholesterol transport and it is known to be protective against atherosclerosis. In addition, HDL has potent anti-inflammatory properties that may be critical for protection against other inflammatory diseases. The molecular mechanisms of how HDL can modulate inflammation, particularly in immune cells such as macrophages, remain poorly understood. Here we identify the transcriptional repressor ATF3, as an HDL-inducible target gene in macrophages that down-regulates the expression of Toll-like receptor (TLR)-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines. The protective effects of HDL against TLR-induced inflammation were fully dependent on ATF3 in vitro and in vivo. Our findings may explain the broad anti-inflammatory and metabolic actions of HDL and provide the basis for predicting the success of novel HDL-based therapies

The Evolution of Primate Short-Term Memory.

Short-term memory is implicated in a range of cognitive abilities and is critical for understanding primate cognitive evolution. To investigate the effects of phylogeny, ecology and sociality on short-term memory, we tested the largest and most diverse primate sample to date (421 non-human primates across 41 species) in an experimental delayed-response task. Our results confirm previous findings that longer delays decrease memory performance across species and taxa. Our analyses demonstrate a considerable contribution of phylogeny over ecological and social factors on the distribution of short-term memory performance in primates; closely related species had more similar short-term memory abilities. Overall, individuals in the branch of Hominoidea performed better compared to Cercopithecoidea, who in turn performed above Platyrrhini and Strepsirrhini. Interdependencies between phylogeny and socioecology of a given species presented an obstacle to disentangling the effects of each of these factors on the evolution of short-term memory capacity. However, this study offers an important step forward in understanding the interspecies and individual variation in short-term memory ability by providing the first phylogenetic reconstruction of this trait’s evolutionary history. The dataset constitutes a unique resource for studying the evolution of primate cognition and the role of short-term memory in other cognitive abilities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Safety of intravenous ferric carboxymaltose versus oral iron in patients with nondialysis-dependent CKD: an analysis of the 1-year FIND-CKD trial.

Background: The evidence base regarding the safety of intravenous (IV) iron therapy in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is incomplete and largely based on small studies of relatively short duration. Methods: FIND-CKD (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT00994318) was a 1-year, open-label, multicenter, prospective study of patients with nondialysis-dependent CKD, anemia and iron deficiency randomized (1:1:2) to IV ferric carboxymaltose (FCM), targeting higher (400-600 µg/L) or lower (100-200 µg/L) ferritin, or oral iron. A post hoc analysis of adverse event rates per 100 patient-years was performed to assess the safety of FCM versus oral iron over an extended period. Results: The safety population included 616 patients. The incidence of one or more adverse events was 91.0, 100.0 and 105.0 per 100 patient-years in the high ferritin FCM, low ferritin FCM and oral iron groups, respectively. The incidence of adverse events with a suspected relation to study drug was 15.9, 17.8 and 36.7 per 100 patient-years in the three groups; for serious adverse events, the incidence was 28.2, 27.9 and 24.3 per 100 patient-years. The incidence of cardiac disorders and infections was similar between groups. At least one ferritin level ≥800 µg/L occurred in 26.6% of high ferritin FCM patients, with no associated increase in adverse events. No patient with ferritin ≥800 µg/L discontinued the study drug due to adverse events. Estimated glomerular filtration rate remained the stable in all groups. Conclusions: These results further support the conclusion that correction of iron deficiency anemia with IV FCM is safe in patients with nondialysis-dependent CKD

The Evolution of Primate Short-Term Memory

Short-term memory is implicated in a range of cognitive abilities and is critical for understanding primate cognitive evolution. To investigate the effects of phylogeny, ecology and sociality on short-term memory, we tested the largest and most diverse primate sample to date (421 non-human primates across 41 species) in an experimental delayed-response task. Our results confirm previous findings that longer delays decrease memory performance across species and taxa. Our analyses demonstrate a considerable contribution of phylogeny over ecological and social factors on the distribution of short-term memory performance in primates; closely related species had more similar short-term memory abilities. Overall, individuals in the branch of Hominoidea performed better compared to Cercopithecoidea, who in turn performed above Platyrrhini and Strepsirrhini. Interdependencies between phylogeny and socioecology of a given species presented an obstacle to disentangling the effects of each of these factors on the evolution of short-term memory capacity. However, this study offers an important step forward in understanding the interspecies and individual variation in short-term memory ability by providing the first phylogenetic reconstruction of this trait’s evolutionary history. The dataset constitutes a unique resource for studying the evolution of primate cognition and the role of short-term memory in other cognitive abilities

Oxytocin and Romantic Relationships: A Functional Perspective

Despite a large body of evidence implicating oxytocin (OT) in various classes of social relationships, researchers have only recently investigated how OT might function within human romantic relationships. I contribute to the growing literature on OT and romantic relationships with the current study, which investigated relationship features that promote OT secretion in a sample of 75 romantic couples. Partners in separate rooms were asked to write (for 10 minutes) about ways their partner did or did not support them. OT was assayed before and after this writing task, and also at a follow-up session one week later. Mixed model analyses showed that participants’ OT increased across the task with multiple dimensions of relationship involvement/investment. However, increases in participants’ OT also corresponded to their partners reporting lower relationship involvement. OT increases, then reflected discrepancies between own and partner’s relationship assessments. These findings may importantly speak to its function in sexual relationships.PsychologyMastersUniversity of New Mexico. Dept. of PsychologyGangestad, StevenEmery Thompson, MelissaDel Giudice, Marc

p-Curve and Selection Methods as Meta-Analytic Supplements for Biologists: A Demonstration of Effect Size Estimation in Studies of Human Fluctuating Asymmetry

Fluctuating asymmetry is hypothesized to predict developmental instability (DI) and fitness outcomes. While published studies largely support this prediction, publication bias remains an issue. Biologists have increasingly turned to meta-analysis to estimate true support for an effect. Van Dongen and Gangestad (VD&G) performed a meta-analysis on studies of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and fitness-related qualities in humans. They found an average robust effect size, but estimates varied widely. Recently, psychologists have identified limitations in traditional meta-analyses and popular companion adjustments, and have advocated for alternative meta-analytic techniques. P-curve estimates true mean effects using significant published effects; it also detects the presence of p-hacking (where researchers exploit researcher “degrees of freedom”), not just publication bias. Alternative selection methods also provide a means to estimate average effect size correcting for publication bias, but may better account for heterogeneity in effect sizes and publication decisions than p-curve. We provide a demonstration by performing p-curve and selection method analyses on the set of effects from VD&G. We estimate an overall effect size range (r = 0.08–0.15) comparable to VD&G, but with notable differences between domains and techniques. Results from alternative estimation methods can provide corroborating evidence for, as well as insights beyond, traditional meta-analytic estimates