Nohwere

Imagine the frustration of Samuel Butler’s protagonist, Higgs, with the strange society he encounters in Erewhon: Was there nothing which I could say to make them feel that the constitution of a person’s body was a thing over which he or she had had at any rate no initial control whatever, while the mind was a perfectly different thing, and capable of being created anew and directed according to the pleasure of its possessor? Could I never bring them to see that while habits of mind and character were entirely independent of initial mental force and early education, the body was so much a creature of parentage and circumstances, that no punishment for ill-health should be ever tolerated save as a protection from contagion, and that even where punishment was inevitable it should be attended with compassion? The Erewhonians had it all wrong, backward actually: they would criminally prosecute someone for the physical illnesses manifested, such as consumption, but would never prosecute those who made bad, immoral choices. And it would not matter that your ill-health was the product of a genetic weakness or malformation: It is all very well for you to say that you came of unhealthy parents, and had a severe accident in your childhood which permanently undermined your constitution; excuses such as these are the ordinary refuge of the criminal; but they cannot for one moment be listened to by the ear of justice. I am not here to enter upon curious metaphysical questions as to the origin of this or that—questions to which there would be no end were their introduction once tolerated, and which would result in throwing the only guilt on the tissues of the primordial cell, or on the elementary gases. Are the Erewhonians wrong? Are we? Or are we both wrong to imagine “fault” in the case of mechanical entities, like human agents? Higgs was certain that the Erewhonians failed to understand the nature of human agency, and we are compelled to wonder if they are right and it is we who are wrong. That is the challenge to which contemporary neuroscientific insights expose accepted normative systems, similar to our legal system (and even our moral responsibility system). We think the Erewhonians were wrong to impose criminal responsibility on those who were the victims of illness. The consumptive is not at fault in any way that could make sense if our object is to reduce the suffering illness causes. Indeed, criminalizing disease would actually exacerbate the problems illness presents. The costs incurred by doing so would increase the burden that illness imposes on society and would undermine human thriving. But we are also sure that contemporary legal and moral systems are just as wrong as the Erewhonian system. Extant legal doctrine and practices (civil as well as criminal) actually undermine human thriving: they are not merely a distraction; they are an impediment. Our normative systems conceive of law and morality as the Erewhonians understood physical disease—a product of sufficient choice to attach blame, fault, and concepts of desert. But on what basis do we draw the distinctions between physical and normative malady: Are not both just (generally) distinguishable manifestations of mechanical causes? If human agents are essentially mechanical entities, on what basis could we find a normative difference between, say, tuberculosis and selfishness or insufficient ability to feel compassion for others? In fact, if you are actually indifferent to the suffering of others, a typical psychopath, what could be the nonphysical cause of that indifference? Butler was prescient, and his Erewhon demonstrates an understanding of human agency that is precocious, anticipating what would only be revealed at the dawn of the Age of Realization: “Man, he said, was a machinate mammal.” All we are is mechanism, and that conclusion is not undermined in the least by the fact that we do not yet understand all that there is to understand about the mechanism. While it may not be possible for us to predict the next instant even were we to know all there is to know about the past and current instants, that does not undermine a mechanical conception of human agency, or of the universe for that matter. It is enough that we understand that mechanics capture well enough what we are at the level that matters to human thriving and the law, so we do not even need to know very much about quantum mechanics (though we need to know some relativity to understand GPS). At the level of acuity the law requires, it is enough that we appreciate the mechanical nature of human agency, for that is the level at which we can appreciate the immorality of basing normative systems, such as law, on ephemeral noninstrumental theory. Ours is an extreme position. Essentially, we are building on Francis Crick’s Astonishing Hypothesis and Bruce Waller’s arguments in Against Moral Responsibility. We are elaborating on Joshua Greene and Jonathan Cohen’s conclusion that “For the Law, Neuroscience Changes Nothing and Everything.” While we have reservations about what can be concluded about free will from Benjamin Libet’s science, we find much that makes good sense to us in Daniel Wegner’s and Leonard Mlodinow’s reservations about the substance of consciousness. Having located ourselves in the literature, starting with Butler, we explain what the law understands human agency to be and demonstrate why the law profoundly misunderstands matters. Butler challenged us to understand the difference between disease and choice. Common wisdom (the irony is intentional) understands those two phenomena to be diametric opposites. As a normative matter, disease is foisted upon you, choice is your own creation, the product of an uncaused cause. But if there are no uncaused causes, if, that is, we are not divine (because only the divine is an uncaused cause in a mechanical universe), there is no such thing as “choice.” And without choice there can be no moral responsibility—no blame, no desert, no retribution, and no punishment (strictly construed). So, there is much at stake in understanding law’s dependence on the insubstantial choice fiction and the mechanics that reveal that choice is a fiction. What we do in this Article is, first, demonstrate the law’s reliance on an inauthentic conception of human agency. We trace that fundamental misapprehension through the three primary areas of the law: contract, tort, and criminal law. In each area, the law reaches conclusions that actually undermine human thriving by relying on a misconception of what it means to be human. “Consent” does not mean what it needs to mean for the contract law to be coherent; “fault” is a distraction if the object of the tort law is, as it should be, to reduce the cost of accidents; and the criminal law, most obviously, fails if it is based, albeit obliquely, on conceptions of moral responsibility that lack a reality referent. The second part of the Article demonstrates why and how there is no room for choice for uncaused causes in the human saga. Any decision or event you can imagine has premises that trace from the instant before the apparent choice and the time immemorial leading up to that choice. We can no more choose to do something unconstrained by the forces that formed the current moment, including us and our place in the current moment, than we could choose to be ten feet tall or be a member of a different species. We are the culmination of forces over which we have nothing but the most ostensible “control.” That control is wholly ostensible because it only seems to be real. Now we recognize that “seeming” is quite convincing; it is all we know, really. The illusion is convincing because it is adaptive; it is much of the story of our social evolution. Proof of that is your inability to even imagine that you do not have free will, that your consciousness does not reveal to you all you need to know to make free choices. You may be able, at some level, to conceive of yourself as a wholly determined creature, but you could not maintain that mental posture for very long. You would slip back into a sense of willingness. While we assert that free will is a fiction and that choice is an illusion, we do not doubt that they are useful. Free will supports a moral responsibility system that has served our species well (enough) for quite some time. And it is helpful to be able to rely on the imposition of guilt and reward of praise to teach others (including one’s children, perhaps unwittingly) to behave in ways that will promote social success, social cohesion, and human thriving. Free will is helpful until it is not helpful. At some point, a point revealed in much of the extant law, conceptions of free will, conclusions premised on the reality of unfettered choice, will actually undermine human thriving, even though it might “feel good” in the instant. This Article is neither optimistic nor pessimistic. It is realistic. We imagine that as the science matures, the law’s incoherence will be manifest, and so will the incoherence of many of the institutions that are founded on an inauthentic understanding of human agency. When neuroscience tells us, more and more eloquently, what it means to be human, we shall appreciate, more and more fully, that the law errs in its assumptions about human agency and errs in ways that not only frustrate, but undermine, law’s object. Just as witch trials seem absurd to us today, many of contemporary law’s dictates will seem barbaric in the not-too-distant future. Prosecute those addicted to controlled substances on account of their consumption of the controlled substance? Wouldn’t that be like punishing someone for having a disease? Are we in Erewhon? Or our own Nohwere

The effect of stress on the expression of the amyloid precursor protein in rat brain

AbstractThe abnormal processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) is a pivotal event in the development of the unique pathology that defines Alzheimer's disease (AD). Stress, and the associated increase in corticosteroids, appear to accelerate brain ageing and may increase vulnerability to Alzheimer's disease via altered APP processing. In this study, rats were repeatedly exposed to an unavoidable stressor, an open elevated platform. Previous studies in this laboratory have shown that a single exposure produces a marked increase in plasma corticosterone levels but animals develop tolerance to this effect between 10 and 20 daily sessions. Twenty-four hours after stress, there was an increase in the ratio of the deglycosylated form of APP in the particulate fraction of the brain, which subsequently habituated after 20 days. The levels of soluble APP (APPs) tended to be lower in the stress groups compared to controls except for a significant increase in the hippocampus after 20 days of platform exposure. Since APPs is reported to have neurotrophic properties, this increased release may represent a neuroprotective response to repeated stress. It is possible that the ability to mount this response decreases with age thus increasing the vulnerability to stress-induced AD-related pathology

Prospectus, August 21, 2013

OBAMA SIGNS STUDENT LOAN DEAL; States tightening rules on college loans; College survival guide money matters: How to survive your first year on campus - without going broke; Essential skills for college freshmen; Boosting inclusion on campus; Are humans hard-wired for racial prejudice?; Tanney\u27s shot at the real thinghttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2013/1009/thumbnail.jp

Status, Testosterone, and Human Intellectual Performance: Stereotype Threat as Status Concern

Results from two experiments suggest that stereotype-threat effects are special cases of a more general process involving the need to maintain or enhance status. We hypothesized that situations capable of confirming a performance stereotype might represent either a threat to status or an opportunity for enhancement of status, depending on the nature of the stereotype. The positive relationship between baseline testosterone and status sensitivity led us to hypothesize that high testosterone levels in males and females would amplify existing performance expectations when gender-based math-performance stereotypes were activated. In Study 1, high-testosterone females performed poorly on a math test when a negative performance stereotype was primed. In Study 2, high-testosterone males excelled on a math test when a positive performance stereotype was primed. The moderating effect of testosterone on performance suggests that a stereotype-relevant situation is capable of conferring either a loss or a gain of status on targets of the stereotype.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

The EPA's human exposure research program for assessing cumulative risk in communities

Communities are faced with challenges in identifying and prioritizing environmental issues, taking actions to reduce their exposures, and determining their effectiveness for reducing human health risks. Additional challenges include determining what scientific tools are available and most relevant, and understanding how to use those tools; given these barriers, community groups tend to rely more on risk perception than science. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) and collaborators are developing and applying tools (models, data, methods) for enhancing cumulative risk assessments. The NERL's “Cumulative Communities Research Program” focuses on key science questions: (1) How to systematically identify and prioritize key chemical stressors within a given community?; (2) How to develop estimates of exposure to multiple stressors for individuals in epidemiologic studies?; and (3) What tools can be used to assess community-level distributions of exposures for the development and evaluation of the effectiveness of risk reduction strategies? This paper provides community partners and scientific researchers with an understanding of the NERL research program and other efforts to address cumulative community risks; and key research needs and opportunities. Some initial findings include the following: (1) Many useful tools exist for components of risk assessment, but need to be developed collaboratively with end users and made more comprehensive and user-friendly for practical application; (2) Tools for quantifying cumulative risks and impact of community risk reduction activities are also needed; (3) More data are needed to assess community- and individual-level exposures, and to link exposure-related information with health effects; and (4) Additional research is needed to incorporate risk-modifying factors (“non-chemical stressors”) into cumulative risk assessments. The products of this research program will advance the science for cumulative risk assessments and empower communities with information so that they can make informed, cost-effective decisions to improve public health

Daily life stress and the cortisol awakening response : testing the anticipation hypothesis

Acknowledgments We thank Paul Stewart for his contribution to data collection and Dr Matthew Jones for programming the handheld computers. Author Contributions Conceived and designed the experiments: WS DJP. Performed the experiments: DJP. Analyzed the data: WS. Wrote the paper: WS DJP.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Androgen and glucocorticoid levels reflect seasonally occurring social challenges in male redfronted lemurs (Eulemur fulvus rufus)

Intense reproductive competition and social instability are assumed to increase concentrations of glucocorticoids and androgens in vertebrates, as a means of coping with these challenges. In seasonally breeding redfronted lemurs (Eulemur fulvus rufus), the mating and the birth season and the associated increased male competition are predicted to pose such reproductive challenges. In this paper, we investigate seasonal variation in hormone excretion in male redfronted lemurs, and examine whether this variation is associated with social or ecological factors. Although dominance status has been shown to affect individual stress levels across many taxa, we predicted no rank-related differences in glucocorticoids for redfronted lemurs because relatively equal costs are associated with both high and low rank positions (based on patterns of rank acquisition/maintenance and threats toward subordinates). Over a 14-month period, we collected behavioral data (1843 focal hours) and 617 fecal samples from 13 redfronted lemur males in Kirindy Forest/Madagascar. We found no general rank-related pattern of testosterone or glucocorticoid excretion in this species. Both hormones were excreted at significantly higher levels during the mating and the birth season, despite social stability during both periods. The elevated mating season levels may be explained by increased within-group reproductive competition during this time and are in line with previous studies of other seasonally reproducing primates. For the birth season increase, we propose that the predictable risk of infanticide in this highly seasonal species affects male gonadal and adrenal endocrine activity. We evaluate alternative social and ecological factors influencing the production of both hormone classes and conclude based on our preliminary investigations that none of them can account for the observed pattern

Hypericum perforatum treatment: effect on behaviour and neurogenesis in a chronic stress model in mice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Extracts of <it>Hypericum perforatum </it>(St. John's wort) have been traditionally recommended for a wide range of medical conditions, in particular mild-to-moderate depression. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of Hypericum perforatum treatment in a mouse model of anxiety/depressive-like behavior, induced by chronic corticosterone administration.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>CD1 mice were submitted to 7 weeks corticosterone administration and then behavioral tests as Open Field (OF), Novelty-Suppressed Feeding (NSF), Forced Swim Test (FST) were performed. Cell proliferation in hippocampal dentate gyrus (DG) was investigated by both 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) and doublecortin (DCX) immunohistochemistry techniques and stereological procedure was used to quantify labeled cells. Golgi-impregnation method was used to evaluate changes in dendritic spines in DG. Hypericum perforatum (30 mg/Kg) has been administered for 3 weeks and then neural development in the adult hippocampus and behavioral changes have been examined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The anxiety/depressive-like state due to chronic corticosterone treatment was reversed by exogenous administration of Hypericum perforatum; the proliferation of progenitor cells in mice hippocampus was significantly reduced under chronic corticosterone treatment, whereas a long term treatment with Hypericum perforatum prevented the corticosterone-induced decrease in hippocampal cell proliferation. Corticosterone-treated mice exhibited a reduced spine density that was ameliorated by Hypericum perforatum administration.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results provide evidence of morphological adaptations occurring in mature hippocampal neurons that might underlie resilient responses to chronic stress and contribute to the therapeutic effects of chronic Hypericum perforatum treatment.</p

Testosterone and Cortisol Release among Spanish Soccer Fans Watching the 2010 World Cup Final

This field study investigated the release of testosterone and cortisol of a vicarious winning experience in Spanish fans watching the finals between Spain and the Netherlands in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer. Spanish fans (n = 50) watched the match with friends or family in a public place or at home and also participated in a control condition. Consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that testosterone and cortisol levels were higher when watching the match than on a control day. However, neither testosterone nor cortisol levels increased after the victory of the Spanish team. Moreover, the increase in testosterone secretion was not related to participants' sex, age or soccer fandom, but the increase in total cortisol secretion during the match was higher among men than among women and among fans that were younger. Also, increases in cortisol secretion were greater to the degree that people were a stronger fan of soccer. Level of fandom further appeared to account for the sex effect, but not for the age effect. Generally, the testosterone data from this study are in line with the challenge hypothesis, as testosterone levels of watchers increased to prepare their organism to defend or enhance their social status. The cortisol data from this study are in line with social self-preservation theory, as higher cortisol secretion among young and greater soccer fans suggests that especially they perceived that a negative outcome of the match would threaten their own social esteem