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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091005T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091005T000000
DTSTAMP:20201013T004829Z
CREATED:20200922T214425Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004829Z
UID:4111-1254700800-1254700800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Greg Hickok - On the nature of auditory-motor interaction in speech processing: implications for the interpretation of mirror neurons and beyond
DESCRIPTION:Greg Hickok: UC Irvine Cognitive Sciences & Center for Cognitive NeuroscienceThere 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.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/greg-hickok-on-the-nature-of-auditory-motor-interaction-in-speech-processing-implications-for-the-interpretation-of-mirror-neurons-and-beyond/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091012T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091012T000000
DTSTAMP:20201013T004828Z
CREATED:20200922T214444Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004828Z
UID:4112-1255305600-1255305600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Bruce Bridgeman - Treading a Slippery Slope: Slant Perception in Near and Far Space
DESCRIPTION:Bruce Bridgeman: UC Santa Cruz Department of PsychologyEstimation 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. http://www.bec.ucla.edu/slopes09.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/bruce-bridgeman-treading-a-slippery-slope-slant-perception-in-near-and-far-space/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091019T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091019T000000
DTSTAMP:20201013T004828Z
CREATED:20200922T214445Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004828Z
UID:4113-1255910400-1255910400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Steve Frank - Demography and timescale in social evolution
DESCRIPTION:Steve Frank: UC Irvine & Santa Fe Institute Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCurrent 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.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/steve-frank-demography-and-timescale-in-social-evolution/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091019T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091019T000000
DTSTAMP:20201013T004828Z
CREATED:20201006T212532Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004828Z
UID:4890-1255910400-1255910400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Steve Frank - Demography and timescale in social evolution
DESCRIPTION:Steve Frank: UC Irvine & Santa Fe Institute Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCurrent 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.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/steve-frank-demography-and-timescale-in-social-evolution-2/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091026T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20091026T000000
DTSTAMP:20201013T004828Z
CREATED:20200922T214445Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004828Z
UID:4114-1256515200-1256515200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Andrew Shaner - Autism as the low-fitness extreme of a parentally selected fitness indicator
DESCRIPTION:Andrew Shaner: UCLA Semel Institute for Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences; Deputy Chief of Psychiatry and Mental Health\, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare SystemIn 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.\nThis 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.\nIn 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).http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/Shaner08.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/andrew-shaner-autism-as-the-low-fitness-extreme-of-a-parentally-selected-fitness-indicator/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
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