Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture

Asher Rosinger, title: Water needs, water insecurity, and nutritional adaptations: The intersecting pathways to human biology
2023-01-30 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Dr. Asher Rosinger
Department of Biobehavioral Health, Penn State
https://hhd.psu.edu/contact/asher-rosinger
This talk will be presented via Zoom.
Abstract: Dr. Asher Rosinger will discuss one of humanity’s oldest and increasingly important questions, how do populations meet their water needs in areas with water problems and how do these strategies affect health and well-being. This talk will discuss how physical and nutritional environments shape variation in human water needs including in early life, how experiences with water become embodied in health and disease patterns, and how humans cope with these environmental stressors through their diets and behavior. It will feature work from the Bolivian Amazon, Northern Kenya, and the US.
Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Sriram Sankararaman, The role of archaic admixture in human evolution
2023-02-06 12:00 - 13:30
Dr. Sriram Sankararaman
UCLA Departments of Computer Science, Human Genetics, and Computational Medicine
http://web.cs.ucla.edu/~sriram/
This talk will be in person as well as being accessible via Zoom.
Title: The role of archaic admixture in human evolution

Abstract: Over the past decade, the ability to sequence genomes from both present-day
and archaic humans (including our closest evolutionary relatives, the Neanderthals) has transformed our understanding of human history. Analyzing these genome sequences paints a picture of human history in which present-day humans migrated out of Africa but exchanged genes with multiple archaic human populations. I will describe statistical methods that identify segments of DNA inherited from archaic humans that are surviving in our genomes today and how these maps of introgressed archaic DNA are providing insights into human migration and biology. Despite this progress, our understanding of the contribution of archaic introgression to populations in Africa remains limited, in part due to the challenges in obtaining ancient DNA in Africa. Leveraging recently developed approaches that enable inferences about archaic populations without access to their genome sequences, we show that west African populations today inherit substantial genetic ancestry from an as-yet-unidentified archaic ghost population that diverged prior to the split of modern humans and Neanderthals. Finally, we combine maps of introgressed Neanderthal DNA with phenotypic datasets collected in hundreds of thousands of individuals to assess the contribution of introgressed Neanderthal DNA to complex traits.
Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Tina Lasisi: Hair, skin, and the racialization of human variation.
2023-02-13 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Dr. Tina Lasisi, Quantitative and Computational Biology, USC
https://anth.la.psu.edu/research/research-labs/jablonski-lab/dr-tina-lasisi/
Dr. Lasisi will present in person, as well as via Zoom.
Title: Hair, skin, and the racialization of human variation.
Abstract: After decades of broadcasting the message that race is a social construct, we find uncritical taxonomic groupings of humans creep back into discussions across disciplines. The terms “race,” “ethnicity,” and “ancestry group” are used alongside typological descriptors of traits like skin and hair, often distorting their variability in a way that reinforces racial typologies. The adoption of quantitative phenotyping methods vastly improved our understanding of skin pigmentation and its evolutionary function while providing a novel non-racialized vocabulary for discussing variation in this trait. The study of hair lags behind in the exploration of phenotypic variation with a similar level of complexity. This talk will discuss the impact of methods and racialized perceptions on our understanding of the evolutionary biology of various traits and the implications of this knowledge in healthcare, forensics, and emerging technologies.
Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Ainash Childebayeva: Population Genetics and Signatures of Selection in Early Neolithic European Farmers
2023-02-27 12:00 - 13:30
Dr. Ainash Childebayeva
Dept of Biological Anthropology, University of Kansas
We are hoping that this talk will be both in person and via Zoom.
Title: Population Genetics and Signatures of Selection in Early Neolithic European Farmers
Abstract: Throughout our evolutionary history, humans have encountered different environmental and cultural changes that left a mark in our genomes. One such event is associated with the transition from hunting and gathering to a more sedentary farming lifestyle, also known as the Neolithic transition. In the last ten years, human expansion and migration in the course of the Neolithic transition in western Eurasia has been one of the major topics in ancient DNA research. Studies have shown that the spread of agriculture from the Near East to Europe was associated with a large-scale human migration. The changes in subsistence and lifestyle associated with the Neolithic, and specifically a more sedentary lifestyle, living in larger groups, and the change in the diet, have been hypothesized to involve genetic adaptation as well. I will present genome-wide ancient DNA results from an early Neolithic farming community from Central Germany, together with available published data. The genetic profile of the Neolithic farmers of Europe shows a primarily Anatolian Neolithic-like ancestry with a small degree of admixture with the local hunter-gatherers. Moreover, genetic data show that the Neolithic farmers of Central Germany lived in large communities that did not show strong signatures of either patri- or matrilocality. Increasing the cohort size of the early farmers to almost 100 individuals made it possible to perform frequency- and haplotype-based scans of selection. Based on the results of the test, selection signals in pathways linked to metabolism and immune system especially stood out, suggesting the effect of the cultural transition on the genomes of the early farmers. These findings shed light on the evolutionary pressures, such as infectious disease and changing diet, that were faced by the early farmers of Western Eurasia.
Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Sean Prall: Perceptions that matter: using peer evaluations and dyadic data to explore behavior in rural Namibia
2023-03-06 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Dr. Sean Prall
Dept. of Anthropology, University of Missouri
https://sprall.github.io/
Title: Perceptions that matter: using peer evaluations and dyadic data to explore behavior in rural Namibia
Abstract: Reputation and social status are central to research on mating, social learning, and cooperation. However, evolutionary social scientists face significant methodological difficulties in accurately measuring people’s perceptions of others. As a result, most studies in anthropology and psychology rely on hypotheticals or experimental paradigms in lab-based settings. While this work has yielded insight into how people think about these domains, these approaches are limited in their ecological validity, ability to capture a dynamic and competitive social environment, and may recapitulate social norms instead of yield novel information about social dynamics. An alternative approach, which I will explore in this talk, is the use of dyadic peer evaluations. Using two unique datasets, each with more than 10,000 ratings from a single community in Namibia, I will explore two case studies: 1) mating market competition, and 2) women’s status. I will highlight the benefits and potential drawbacks of dyadic peer evaluations and explore how these methods can be used as part of a larger toolkit to explore cultural and behavioral attributes of human populations.
Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Tom Kraft: Modeling the dynamics of infectious disease transmission in a small-scale subsistence population
2023-03-13 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Dr. Tom Kraft
Dept. of Anthropology, University of Utah
https://thomaskraft.weebly.com/
Title: Modeling the dynamics of infectious disease transmission in a small-scale subsistence population
Abstract:​​​
Infectious disease dynamics are governed by patterns of contact that vary by geography, social organization, mobility, network structure, and cultural factors. Based on speculation about these parameters in contemporary subsistence populations, voluntary collective isolation (VCI) has been proposed to mitigate the impact of global disease transmission into relatively isolated, largely self-sufficient, small-scale indigenous groups, most recently with respect to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. To assess the vulnerability of small-scale populations to epidemics and the viability of VCI and other interventions, I simulated disease transmission among Amazonian forager-horticulturalists (Tsimane) using a stochastic network metapopulation model parameterized with a wealth of high-resolution data on social behavior, mobility, and population structure. Findings indicate that relative isolation and Tsimane social organization offer little protection from disease introduction and widespread transmission, even in the most remote communities, and that VCI is unlikely to be effective under contemporary socioeconomic conditions. The occurrence of a local SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in this region in mid-2020 afforded an opportunity to test this model; comparison of model results to empirical outcomes measured using serological assays shows good model fit amidst very high rates of transmission. These results demonstrate the applied utility of anthropological data, and suggest that VCI alone is unlikely to be a viable intervention strategy. Pandemic policies should instead aim to protect small-scale communities by delivering distributed health care resources across remote areas.
Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Richard McElreath: The Problem with Cultural Evolution.
2023-04-03 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Dr. Richard McElreath, Director of the Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Title: The Problem with Cultural Evolution
https://www.eva.mpg.de/ecology/index/
Abstract: The field of cultural evolution, like any rapidly growing field, has some pruning to do. In this talk I will outline some problems with the field and suggest some paths forward. Parts of cultural evolution are an undisciplined bandwagon characterized by vague theorizing or even worse no theorizing at all. It is methodologically chaotic, and links between theory and evidence are often more metaphorical than logical. Some of the most prominent cultural evolution research is exaggerated story-telling sinking on a swamp of illogical and opaque data analysis. The field has tremendous potential as a scientific framework for the study of animal and human societies. But it must invest more in self-criticism and rigor, if it is going to do more than produce entertainment for the college-educated.
Zoom link: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Kristine Chua, - talk CANCELLED due to illness
2023-04-10 12:00 - 13:30
Kristine Chua, Postdoctoral Scholar, Integrative Anthropological Sciences, UCSB
ttps://boddylab.com/people/
Title: Using evolutionary and biocultural perspectives in the study of human pregnancy in diverse communities
Abstract:
Models of the social determinants of health have proliferated in recent years across multiple disciplines. Yet, this surge in the literature within a small timeframe has led to ambiguities. Particularly unclear are the social determinants that should be focused upon in clinical applications. These and other important questions remain unresolved. For instance, how do cultural norms, political conditions, and biological mechanisms interact to affect health? How are developmental trajectories facultatively calibrated to environments, and how do these trajectories later shape health outcomes? To address these questions, I work from a biocultural anthropology and evolutionary perspective that integrates evolutionary, cultural, and biological theories that offer insights into health disparities. I will describe my work that examines how pregnant Filipina and Latina American mothers respond to stress from their socio-political environment, pathways for embodiment, and my plans for extending this work.
Zoom link: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Kim Hill: Human Uniqueness and the flow of goods and services in Samal “sea nomads” of the Philippines
2023-04-17 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Dr. Kim Hill, Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University
This talk will be presented in person, as well as via Zoom.
Dr. Hill will be presenting the Frank Marlowe Memorial Lecture for this year.
Human Uniqueness and the flow of goods and services in Samal “sea nomads” of the Philippines
Abstract: Humans are an extreme outlier species by many objective measures. How did we get to be so different from the other 9 million eukaryotic species on the planet? Decades of research suggests that even in the most traditional human societies a combination of interacting factors makes us unique: culture, cooperation, cognition, communication. This also lead to the co-evolution of a very unique life history, that required economic interdependence in order to be successful. In this talk I present new research from Sama “sea nomads” that examines transfers of material goods and services between households. The pattern shows again the amazing interdependence of settlement households in order to successfully replicate. We find that reciprocity seems to be the single most important driver of cooperation, although reciprocity partners are preferentially close kin. Age differences structure many types of helping that appear to be examples of cooperative helping to successfully raise multiple dependent juveniles.
Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Kristine Chua: Using Evolutionary and Biocultural Perspectives in the Study of Human Pregnancy in Diverse Communities
2023-04-24 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Kristine Chua, Postdoctoral Scholar, Integrative Anthropological Sciences, UCSB
This talk will be presented live as well as via Zoom.
Title: Using Evolutionary and Biocultural Perspectives in the Study of Human Pregnancy in Diverse Communities

Abstract: Models of the social determinants of health have proliferated in recent years across multiple disciplines. Yet, this surge in the literature within a small timeframe has led to ambiguities. Particularly unclear are the social determinants that should be focused upon in clinical applications. These and other important questions remain unresolved. For instance, how do cultural norms, political conditions, and biological mechanisms interact to affect health? How are developmental trajectories facultatively calibrated to environments, and how do these trajectories later shape health outcomes? To address these questions, I work from a biocultural anthropology and evolutionary perspective that integrates evolutionary, cultural, and biological theories that offer insights into health disparities. I will describe my work that examines how pregnant Filipina and Latina American mothers respond to stress from their socio-political environment, pathways for embodiment, and my plans for extending this work.
Zoom link: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

John Bunce and Caissa Revilla Minaya: Cultural dynamics in an Indigenous Amazonian population: An exploration of intra- and inter-ethnic causal mechanisms
2023-05-01 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Dr. John Bunce & Dr. Caissa Revilla Minaya, Culture, Environment and Health Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
https://www.eva.mpg.de/ecology/projects-and-research-groups/culture-environment-and-health-research-group/
Title: Cultural dynamics in an Indigenous Amazonian population: An exploration of intra- and inter-ethnic causal mechanisms
Abstract: For several decades, evolutionary social science theorists have devoted considerable attention to exploring various mechanisms that influence the adaptive, and non-adaptive, dynamics of human culture. However, less attention has focused on the empirical study of such mechanisms in real-world human populations, particularly in contexts of disempowered minorities, for whom cultural change may co-occur with a desire to maintain an ethnic identity distinct from that of powerful neighboring groups. Here, we present our recent efforts to better understand mechanisms driving cultural dynamics in an Indigenous Matsigenka population in a remote region of Amazonian Peru. Caissa uses Bayesian item-response theory models to characterize variation within the complex set of dietary restrictions (taboos) practiced by Matsigenka parents of young children. She combines this analysis with insights from extensive participant observation to develop a theory for the endogenous emergence of some such cultural practices among the Matsigenka. John uses Bayesian analysis of interview data to explore how cultural norms in domains such as child-rearing, fairness, and inheritance are influenced by inter-ethnic interactions between Matsigenka and neighboring Mestizos. He uses a longitudinal quantitative and participatory study of norm change among Matsigenka children attending Mestizo-run boarding schools to narrow the range of possible mechanisms responsible for generating individual-level variation in such ethnic-typical beliefs. Together, we show how insights gained through both quantitative and qualitative empirical work can inform general theories of the intra- and inter-ethnic causal mechanisms influencing cultural dynamics in our species.
This talk will be presented via Zoom only.
Zoom link: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Renee Hagen, Common behaviors and moral codes: Applying cultural evolution and sexual conflict theory to model the dynamics of social norms
2023-05-08 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Renee Hagen, Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Anthropology, UCLA
https://reneehagen.com/
Title: Common behaviors and moral codes: Applying cultural evolution and sexual conflict theory to model the dynamics of social norms

Abstract:
How do new social norms spread in social groups, and how are norms maintained or change over time? I will present two studies that investigate these questions by using evolutionary perspectives to understand cultural change. In one study I apply the framework of cultural evolution theory to examine what drives change in perinatal care norms among Himba women in the Kunene region of Namibia. Access to formal medical care is on the rise in this region, and medical workers regularly visit communities to promote WHO-recommended perinatal care practices. Based on interviews with one hundred Himba mothers, we examine how perceptions of group preferences, prestige ascribed to outgroup conformers, interaction with the outgroup and access to resources affect norm adoption. Here I found that women who perceive medical recommendations as common in their group prefer, plan and practice these recommendations more often themselves. The observed shift toward medical recommendations regarding birth location and contraception use that was in line with conformity bias predictions. In another study, I look at gender norms from a fitness perspective and ask why people sometimes support norms that seem to be against their own self-interest. Specifically I examine women’s support of patriarchal gender norms in China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, and test whether their anticipated inclusive fitness benefits are reflected in their stated attitudes. I find that that part of the variation in attitudes towards gender norms can be explained through varying interests in such norms depending on gender and age. In contrast with previous studies, I find little evidence that having more sons leads to higher support for patriarchal norms; only in China and South Korea is having more sons linked with a stronger son-preference, but having more sons is unrelated to other gender norms. Higher social status correlates with egalitarian attitudes more so for women than for men. I suggest that higher social status might decrease the costs for women to contest the dominant gender ideology of their community.
This talk will be presented live as well as via Zoom.
Zoom link: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Nicole Thompson-Gonzalez: Social paths to health and fitness in primates
2023-05-15 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Dr. Nicole Thompson-Gonzalez, Assistant Professor, Dept of Integrative Anthropological Sciences, University of California-Santa Barbara
http://www.nicolethompsongonzalez.com/
This talk will be presented live as well as via Zoom.
Title: Social paths to health and fitness in primates
Abstract: Friendly social ties are important means to monopolize resources, buffer risks, and in turn increase health and fitness across an array of social animals. Although many studies suggest that more and stronger ties are better, this is not always the case. The effectiveness of social strategies appears to vary by species ecology, reproductive priorities, and age. Here, I discuss the variability of effective social strategies among adult females of one monkey species, how social ties change with age in adult male and female chimpanzees, and the relevance of both to human sociality and aging. I also discuss what new non-invasive measures we can use to evaluate health in the wild. I conclude with ongoing and future work that examines the influences of social ties on healthy aging and specific age-related disease.
Zoom link: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Caroline Schuppli: Skill acquisition and life history: towards a better understanding of cognitive evolution.
2023-05-22 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Dr. Caroline Schuppli, Max Planck Research Group leader, MPI for Animal Behavior
https://www.ab.mpg.de/person/110356/2736
This talk will be presented via Zoom.
Title: Skill acquisition and life history: towards a better understanding of cognitive evolution
Abstract: Cognitive capacity gets selected for via skills and abilities which provide individuals with fitness benefits. However, strikingly, the larger brained a species is, the more incompetent its infants are at birth and the more they must learn to become functioning adults. This suggests that especially for large-brained species, the developmental construction of intelligence critically depends on inputs during ontogeny. Therefore, to understand the evolution of cognition, we need to look at how skills and abilities develop in individuals. To shed light on these questions, we conduct long-term research on orangutans as well as look at broader patterns across species using comparative analyses. Our results suggest that that extended developmental periods during which skills can develop as well as learning mechanisms that allow for efficient skill acquisition are crucial for the evolution of high-level cognition.
Zoom link: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Laurel Fogarty: Cultural rescue: avoiding extinction with gene-culture coevolution
2023-06-05 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Dr. Laurel Fogarty, Senior Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
This talk will be presented via Zoom.
Cultural rescue: avoiding extinction with gene-culture coevolution.
Abstract: It is often suggested that the adaptability and success of human populations is a direct result of our sophisticated cultural abilities. Previously, we have suggested that in cases where lethal environmental shifts cause population decline, culture may be able to rescue an otherwise doomed population — in other words cause a ‘cultural population rescue’. Innovation and cultural transmission together might provide behavioural adaptations that could compensate for the detrimental effect of an environmental change. To the extent that such innovations could spread and be maintained through cultural transmission, such a process could indefinitely compensate for novel harsh environmental conditions.
However, such a scenario may be rare and culture might do more. Organisms with large body sizes and long generation times, like humans, are not typically thought to be able to undergo true ‘evolutionary rescue’, where compensatory genetic mutations arise and allow the demographic recovery of a declining population. As a consequence of long waiting times for beneficial mutations, where generation times are long, and population sizes are relatively small, populations are overwhelmingly likely to die out before such mutations arise and spread to high frequency. We suggest that where culture does not lead to a direct ‘cultural rescue’, it might nevertheless slow population decline providing time in which compensatory genetic mutations may arise. This mechanism seems plausible. However, the key to understanding the importance of culture in human population survival lies in describing how frequently such culturally-facilitated evolutionary rescues could occur and under what circumstances they are plausible, likely, or impossible.
In this talk I will describe a mathematical model of evolutionary rescue that allows for direct gene-culture interactive effects on biological fitness, and examine the probability of population rescue in the presence and absence of culture.
Zoom: https://ucla.zoom.us/j/92826436236?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 928 2643 6236
Passcode: BEC

Barbara Natterson-Horowitz - The 600-million-year history of human affective disorder
2023-10-02 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
The 600-million-year history of human affective disorder
Barbara Natterson-Horowitz
Division of Cardiology, UCLA School of Medicine
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UCLA
Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Fifty years ago this October, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to three animal behaviorists based on the belief that the emerging field of ethology could transform our understanding of human biobehavioral health. Unfortunately, the promise was not realized within the lifetimes of the scientists themselves. In the decades that followed, advances in biological psychiatry challenged psychoanalysis as the singular source of explanatory insights into mental illness. Regrettably, highly reductive biological approaches that lack a broader, integrated organismal and ecological context have not led to much needed transformational knowledge.
Today, broadly comparative and ecologically-informed studies of animal behavior are revealing: 1) the ancient origins of human affective systems and affective disorders in the social brain networks of early social animals, 2) the important links between brain biology promoting adaptive behavior in chronically subordinated animals and neurovegetative symptoms in depressed human beings, and 3) evidence that withdrawn behavior, anhedonia, and reduced cognitive and motoric activity in chronic subordinates increases survival in certain individuals. Recent studies connecting social defeat to severe depression point, once again, to animal behavior as a source of insights into human mental health. In fact, phylogenetic perspectives can provide much needed scaffolding on which to layer, with context, the rapidly growing body of reductive knowledge about the human brain in health and illness.
Dr Natterson-Horowitz’s lecture will first survey the historical and scientific settings in which both insights were recognized and overlooked. She will then present an up-to-date summary of insights into human affective disorders emerging at the intersection of behavioral ecology, neurobiology, psychopharmacology, and evolutionary biology.

Caleb Finch - The Gero-Exposome, a life history approach to diversity of human longevity
2023-10-16 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
The Gero-Exposome, a life history approach to diversity of human longevity
Caleb Finch, PhD
ARCO and Kieschnick Professor, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, USC
From egg to exit, human life history is determined by environmental interactions with our genome (GxE). The Gero-Exposome provides a framework for analyzing GxE interactions with life style, biomes, and systemic factors. Lifespans difference of 15 years across the socio-economic status (SES) have corresponding differences in the onset of cardiovascular disease and dementia. Moreover, SES influences the development of brain and vasculature, by greater gestational exposure to air pollution and cigarette smoke in low SES. Multiple postnatal phases have environmental influences throughout the lifespan. As an experimental model for these complexities, mice were gestationally exposed to air pollution. Young adults had more body fat and glucose intolerance, while brains had lower levels of hypothalamic neuropeptides and neuronal stem cells in the hippocampus. These findings are relevant to the multi-generational stability of SES differences in health and lifespan, for which the GxE basis is undefined.

Bridget Callaghan - Intergenerational impacts of adversity on mind-body health: pathways through interoception and the gut-brain axis
2023-10-23 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Intergenerational impacts of adversity on mind-body health – pathways through interoception and the gut-brain axis
Bridget Callaghan
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, UCLA
Children’s early experiences with caregivers impact their mental and physical health across the lifespan. Such early caregiving experiences can become biologically and psychologically embedded within an individual, contributing to intergenerational transmission of adversity. My research program investigates the neurobiological mechanisms via which early caregiving experiences impact children’s mental and physical health, and how those experiences may be transmitted to impact future generations. I will present data from several studies demonstrating how early life adversity gets ‘under the skin’ to influence children’s emotional health and physical health, paying particular attention to gastrointestinal distress, which is tightly connected to emotional wellbeing. Zooming in on the gastrointestinal and oral microbiomes, I will show how adversity impacts biological systems tied to emotional and physical wellbeing. Finally, I will show that mind-body adaptations to the state of pregnancy, through changing interoception, may be one pathway through which experiences of adversity are perpetuated across generations.

Katie Karlsgodt - Reward and Cognitive Function in Adolescent Psychopathology
2023-10-30 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Reward and Cognitive Function in Adolescent Psychopathology
Katie Karlsgodt
UCLA Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry
Adolescence is a time when exploration, and even risk-taking, can be considered an adaptive part of the typical developmental experience. This period of enhanced risk-taking allows for new learning, particularly about the social world, and is a critical part of establishing independence. Risk-taking is a complex behavior, often considered to rely on many factors, including reward sensitivity and reward behaviors, response to punishment, and executive function skills that allow the balancing of competing factors and the selection of choices. However, in addition to being a time of exploration and independence, adolescence is also the period of onset for many psychological disorders including schizophrenia and depression. Many such disorders include alterations in both reward and executive function, which has the potential to impact learning and exploration during this time, with ultimate effects on social function, and long term daily life function. In this talk, I will address the existing literature in this area, recent relevant work from my lab on reward function, adolescence, and psychopathology, and future directions.

Michael Wells - Exploration of human genetic and phenotypic diversity through cell villages
2023-11-06 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Exploration of human genetic and phenotypic diversity through cell villages
Michael Wells
Assistant Professor, UCLA Department of Human Genetics
Human genome variation contributes to diversity in neurodevelopmental outcomes and vulnerabilities; recognizing the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms will require scalable approaches. Here, I will describe a ‘‘cell village’’ experimental platform we used to analyze genetic, molecular, and phenotypic heterogeneity across neural progenitor cells from 44 human donors cultured in a shared in vitro environment using algorithms (Dropulation and Census-seq) to assign cells and phenotypes to individual donors. Through rapid induction of human stem cell-derived neural progenitor cells, measurements of natural genetic variation, and CRISPR-Cas9 genetic perturbations, we identified a common variant that regulates antiviral IFITM3 expression and explains most inter-individual variation in susceptibility to the Zika virus. We also detected expression QTLs corresponding to GWAS loci for brain traits and discovered novel disease-relevant regulators of progenitor proliferation and differentiation such as CACHD1. The village approach provides scalable ways to elucidate the effects of genes and genetic variation on cellular phenotypes, and can help elucidate the mechanisms guiding brain development and associated diseases.

Zarin Machanda - Social aging in wild chimpanzees
2023-11-13 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Social aging in wild chimpanzees
Zarin Machanda
Tufts University, Departments of Anthropology and Biology
Humans are living longer lives than ever before and so it is critical to understand the process of aging. It has become increasingly recognized that successful aging is not just about physical health but also about our social lives. Chimpanzees are our closest living relative and lead long and complex lives making them an ideal model to better understand our own patterns of social aging. In this talk, Dr. Machanda will discuss the patterns of social aging in wild chimpanzees from her decades-long research project studying the Kanyawara chimpanzees living in Kibale National Park, Uganda.

Theo Samore - Traditionalism, pathogen avoidance, and competing tradeoffs during a global pandemic
2023-11-27 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Traditionalism, pathogen avoidance, and competing tradeoffs during a global pandemic
Theo Samore
University of Otago
Individuals vary in the extent to which they embrace their society’s traditions, as well as in the perception of threats as salient and necessitating mitigation. Traditionalism and threat sensitivity may be linked if—over evolutionary time—traditions offered avenues for reliably addressing threats, either through instrumental and/or ritual and cooperative benefits. Alternatively, if traditionalists are attuned to group-destabilizing threats, they may also exhibit greater threat sensitivity in certain domains. These possibilities – which are not mutually exclusive – suggest that greater traditionalism may associate with stronger mitigating responses toward some threats. However, threat-avoidance motivations can conflict with competing priorities and epistemic commitments in the real world. The COVID-19 pandemic represented a moment in time in which people across the world undertook costly threat-mitigating behaviors, providing an important test of the traditionalism-threat avoidance relationship under complex real-world conditions. We investigated the relationship between COVID-19 precautions, traditionalism, and perceptions of competing tradeoffs in both the U.S. and a large 27-country cross-cultural sample. Results indicated that, across study sites, traditionalism tended to positively correlate with behaviors intended to mitigate the threat of COVID-19. Further, despite possible epistemic conflict between religion and science, individuals tended to report engaging in both scientifically and religiously rooted precautions. Nevertheless, at some study sites, the relationship between public health precautions and traditionalism was suppressed by competing priorities, such as lower trust in scientists and greater concerns about personal liberties.

Nikhil Chaudhary - Hunter-gatherers, evolutionary mismatch and mental disorder
2023-12-04 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Hunter-gatherers, evolutionary mismatch and mental disorder
Nikhil Chaudhary
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge
*Note: This speaker will be remote; However, we will still be meeting in Haines 352 to watch the talk and conduct the Q&A.
Humans lived as hunter-gatherers for the vast majority of our evolutionary history, therefore it has been proposed that aspects of our psychology may be adapted to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. There are several assumptions in this proposal, however, research with contemporary hunter-gatherers can offer a useful starting point for exploring the potential for evolutionary mismatch—when an organism faces conditions that differ from those that some trait of the organism is adapted to, resulting in pathology or maladaptation. Drawing on my fieldwork and previous research, I will discuss how discordances between the social organisation of hunter-gatherers and WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, Democratic) societies may affect vulnerability to mental disorders in the latter. I will pay particularly attention to differences in residence patterns, hierarchical structures, and social networks. I will also discuss differences in childcare strategies and their implications for psychological development.

Emily Lindsey - Dawn of the Anthropocene: How humans in a warming climate drove Pleistocene mammal extinctions and re-shaped California’s landscapes
2024-01-22 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Dawn of the Anthropocene: How humans in a warming climate drove Pleistocene mammal extinctions and re-shaped California’s landscapes
Emily Lindsey
Tar Pits/UCLA

The relative roles late-Quaternary climate changes and human actions played in the extinction of most of the world’s large mammals at the end of the Ice Age have been long-debated. One key challenge is that the fossil record in most regions is too poorly-constrained to precisely pinpoint the disappearance times of different species and align these with environmental and anthropogenic phenomena. In this talk, I will describe how a large-scale, interdisciplinary effort brought together several remarkable records from southern California to unveil a regional story of fire, extinction, and ecosystem state shift. This discovery has significant implications for global megafaunal extinctions research as well as modern conservation efforts.

Elsa Ordway - Insights from the tropics: a social-ecological systems approach to understanding climate change
2024-01-29 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Insights from the tropics: a social-ecological systems approach to understanding climate change
Elsa Ordway
UCLA
The tropics are experiencing dramatic changes as a result of climate change and land-use change. Shifts in carbon flux dynamics, water cycling, and species composition are resulting in feedbacks with globally important consequences. However, tropical forests are not a monolith. They vary enormously in terms of species diversity, climate, soils, human interactions, and much more. As a result, tropical forest ecosystems are already beginning to show evidence of distinct responses to climate and land-use change. Yet, these differences remain highly uncertain and poorly understood. An integrated social-ecological systems approach is critical for understanding drivers of and responses to change, as well as for identifying solutions.

Jazlyn Mooney - On the Number of Genealogical Ancestors: Tracing to the Source Groups of an Admixed Population
2024-02-05 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
On the Number of Genealogical Ancestors: Tracing to the Source Groups of an Admixed Population
Jazlyn Mooney
USC
In genetically admixed populations, admixed individuals possess ancestry from multiple source groups. Studies of human genetic admixture frequently estimate ancestry components corresponding to fractions of individual genomes that trace to specific ancestral populations. However, the same numerical ancestry fraction can represent a wide array of admixture scenarios. Using a mechanistic model of admixture, we characterize admixture genealogically: how many distinct ancestors from the source populations does the admixture represent? We consider African Americans, for whom continent-level estimates produce a 75-85% value for African ancestry on average and 15-25% for European ancestry. Genetic studies together with key features of African-American demographic history suggest ranges for model parameters. Using the model, we infer that if genealogical lineages of a random African American born during 1960-1965 are traced back until they reach members of source populations, the expected number of genealogical lines terminating with African individuals is 314, and the expected number terminating in Europeans is 51. Across discrete generations, the peak number of African genealogical ancestors occurs for birth cohorts from the early 1700s. The probability exceeds 50% that at least one European ancestor was born more recently than 1835. Our genealogical perspective can contribute to further understanding the admixture processes that underlie admixed populations. For African Americans, the results provide insight both on how many of the ancestors of a typical African American might have been forcibly displaced in the Transatlantic Slave Trade and on how many separate European admixture events might exist in a typical African-American genealogy.

Eduardo Amorim - How Past Pandemics Shaped the Evolution of Human Immunity – Lessons from Ancient Genomes
2024-02-12 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
How Past Pandemics Shaped the Evolution of Human Immunity – Lessons from Ancient
Genomes
Eduardo Amorim
Cal State Northridge
Pathogen exposure has played a pivotal role in shaping human evolution. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) reveal that the genetic predisposition to infections arises from the contribution of thousands of loci across the genome, indicating a polygenic mode of inheritance. At California State University Northridge, our research lab utilizes ancient DNA (aDNA) data to investigate the evolution of polygenic traits in humans, focusing on phenotypes related to immunity and adaptation to extreme environmental conditions. In this presentation, I will explore how past epidemics shaped the genetic makeup of our ancestors, impacting various biological pathways relevant to human health. While addressing the limitations of our methods, I will emphasize the growing potential of paleogenomics, employing time-series genetic data built with aDNA to enhance our understanding of human adaptation and the evolution of polygenic traits. The talk will conclude with a brief overview of other ongoing projects in our lab, including the study of high-altitude adaptation and the coevolution of the human host and the oral microbiome.

Michael Campbell - The effect of population history on patterns of genetic diversity at the TAS2R bitter taste receptor genes in West Central and Central African populations
2024-02-26 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
The effect of population history on patterns of genetic diversity at the TAS2R bitter taste receptor genes in West Central and Central African populations
Michael Campbell
USC
Bitter taste perception is a highly variable trait in humans, and the ability to detect bitter compounds has been largely attributed to genetic variants in 25 bitter taste receptor (TAS2R) genes. Furthermore, bitter taste perception has been hypothesized to be a dietary adaptation in humans. However, few studies have characterized patterns of diversity and signatures of selection at the TAS2R genes in distinct African populations. Given the extensive genetic substructure and evidence for local adaptation in Africa, we hypothesized that Africans practicing diverse subsistence strategies could have distinct patterns of selection resulting from divergent diets. To test this hypothesis, we examined sequence variation at 22 bitter taste receptor genes in rainforest hunter-gatherers and Bantu-speaking agriculturalists from Cameroon. Here, we identified 353 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the TAS2R genes, 35 of which have never been previously described. We also observed striking signatures of positive selection, including unusually long haplotypes around alleles at the TAS2R genes. In addition, some of these signals of selection were shared between rainforest hunter-gatherers and Bantu-speaking agriculturalists. To better understand these results, we performed genomic genotyping in our African populations. Interestingly, we observed varying proportions of ancestry originating from Bantu-speakers in hunter-gatherers with the highest levels of admixture occurring in the Bakola population. These findings demonstrate that gene flow from neighboring agriculturalists has also shaped patterns of diversity in hunter-gatherers, including variation in the TAS2R genes. Overall, this research provides new insights into the evolution of biologically relevant bitter taste genes in highly understudied African populations.

Patricia Greenfield
2024-03-04 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
Patricia Greenfield
Distinguished Professor, UCLA Department of Psychology
Associate, Harvard Department of Human Evolutionary Biology
A Theoretical and Empirical Approach to Cultural Evolution: Intergenerational Transmission, Cognition, and Creativity
For the theoretical approach, I will present my multilevel theory of ecological change, cultural evolution, and human development. For the empirical evidence, I will report findings from longitudinal study of a Zinacantec Maya community in Chiapas, Mexico over a span of 43 years. This research has explored the intergenerational transmission of weaving, cognitive development, and creativity in three generations of mothers and children. From Generation 1 to Generation 2, the main ecological change was the transition from subsistence agriculture to money and commerce. From Generation 2 to Generation 3, the main ecological change was from informal education at home to formal education at school. In the domain of intergenerational transmission, the first shift created more independent weaving learners; the second shift created more school-like transmission of weaving technique. Both ecological shifts moved cognition towards greater abstraction and creativity towards greater innovation. These ecological shifts also produced cultural losses: Fewer girls learning to weave on a backstrap loom, less detail-oriented visual representation, and the declining importance of traditional, community-wide woven patterns. The processes of cultural evolution identified in this Maya community are similar to cultural shifts going on in many communities around the world, communities have transitioned from subsistence ecologies to commercial, urbanized, and technologically more sophisticated environments.

Holly Dunsworth - To Save Humankind, Kill Off the Hero’s Journey of Human Evolution
2024-03-11 12:00 - 13:30 | 352 Haines Hall
To Save Humankind, Kill Off the Hero’s Journey of Human Evolution
Holly Dunsworth
University of Rhode Island
In Narratives of Human Evolution, Misia Landau revealed that late 19th and early 20th century fathers of human evolutionary theory, including Charles Darwin, unconsciously conformed their stories to the key structural elements of Russian folktales. Dunsworth argues that the enduring habit—within science, academia, and throughout popular culture—of projecting a hero’s journey onto lineages that blend and weave across deep time is fundamental to the perpetuation of untrue patriarchal and racist reconstructions of human origins and human nature, which we continue to enact to our peril, and to the planet’s. In this presentation, Dunsworth breaks down the hero’s journey into its parts and compares them to contemporary human evolutionary biology. In the end, the hero’s journey does not triumph. This presentation is based on a chapter in Dunsworth’s upcoming book (Viking/Penguin, 2025).
