I owe Eric Olson a very humble apology, and admission for doing exactly what I accused him of doing in SciAm -- and I want to apologize to SciAm just as equally.
I finally watched the video Olson included in his post. Far from denigrating Dawkins or showing unfamiliarity with its contents, it is exactly the other way around: the video followed Dawkins' idea almost to the word and Dawkins essentially could have written them himself.
That said, everything I said below I retract in complete humility.
Biologist Richard Dawkins coined the phrase "the selfish gene" with his best-selling book of the same name. "Selfish", however, was an unfortunate word choice because genes lack a will and can actually drive altruism. SA editor Eric Olson explains.
David Strumfels' Comments:
Eric Olson -- how many times does it have to be said, "Next time read a book before you criticize it." Dawkins has repeatedly explained over the decades exactly what he means by the selfish gene, and he has made it clear over and over and over again -- as if even a high school biology student even needs it explained -- that of course genes don't have wills or are selfish in the human sense. It's pure analogy: genes "act" as though they had selfish wills, and if you use that analogy prudently you will understand a great more about them, as Dawkins has over those decades (and helped me as well) and you clearly haven't.
Shame on Scientific American for printing this ancient rubbish; but then, you haven't been a real science magazine for some years now. Maybe if you hired some real science journalists and stopped trying to be a combo of real journal and dumbed-down pop sci magazine, you would regain your old respect.
Oh, and the portrait of Dawkins with a rather goofy grin -- that was just coincidence of course. Hunt around enough photos and of course you will find a few. Scientific value of a person's photo? Clearly none whatsoever; it's just there for prejudicial purposes. I won't even reproduce it.
I know Dawkins and others have posted more serious rebuttals than mine, so I'll stop here and "go out and dig in the garden, or something."
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Mars Curiosity rover finds life-supporting chemicals
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An illustration depicts the possible extent of an ancient lake inside Gale Crater, where the Mars rover Curiosity landed on the Red Planet in August 2012. The $2.5 billion NASA mission set out to explore Gale Crater, which was thought to have once hosted flowing water. Curiosity found evidence of clay formations, or "mudstone," in the crater's Yellowknife Bay, scientists said in 2013. This clay may have held the key ingredients for life billions of years ago. It means a lake must have existed in the area.
The rover drilled this hole, in a rock that's part of a flat outcrop researchers named "John Klein," during its first sample drilling on Mars on February 8.
The latest self-portrait of the rover combines dozens of images taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on February 3.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has taken its first set of nighttime photos, including this image of Martian rock illuminated by ultraviolet lights. Curiosity used the camera on its robotic arm, the Mars Hand Lens Imager, to capture the images on January 22.
Another nighttime image includes this rock called Sayunei in the Yellowknife Bay area of Mars' Gale Crater. Curiosity's front-left wheel had scraped the rock to inspect for fresh, dust-free materials in an area where drilling for rock soon will begin.
An area of windblown sand and dust downhill from a cluster of dark rocks has been selected as the likely location for the first use of the scoop on the arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.
Curiosity cut a wheel scuff mark into a wind-formed ripple at the "Rocknest" site on October 3, 2012. This gave researchers a better opportunity to examine the particle-size distribution of the material forming the ripple.
NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for what scientists believe was an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here. The key evidence for the ancient stream comes from the size and rounded shape of the gravel in and around the bedrock, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech science team. The rounded shape leads the science team to conclude they were transported by a vigorous flow of water. The grains are too large to have been moved by wind.
This photos shows an up-close look at an outcrop that also shows evidence of flowing water, according to the JPL/Caltech science team. The outcrop's characteristics are consistent with rock that was formed by the deposition of water and is composed of many smaller rounded rocks cemented together. Water transport is the only process capable of producing the rounded shape of conglomerate rock of this size.
Curiosity completed its longest drive to date on September 26, 2012. The rover moved about 160 feet east toward the area known as "Glenelg." As of that day the rover had moved about a quarter-mile from its landing site.
This image shows the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with the first rock touched by an instrument on the arm. The photo was taken by the rover's right navigation camera.
This image combines photographs taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager at three distances from the first Martian rock that NASA's Curiosity rover touched with its arm. The images reveal that the target rock has a relatively smooth, gray surface with some glinty facets reflecting sunlight and reddish dust collecting in recesses in the rock.
This rock will be the first target for Curiosity's contact instruments. Located on a turret at the end of the rover's arm, the contact instruments include the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer for reading a target's elemental composition and the Mars Hand Lens Imager for close-up imaging.
Researchers used the Curiosity rover's mast camera to take a photo of the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. The image was used to see if it had been caked in dust during the landing.
Researchers also used the mast camera to examine the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the rover to inspect its dust cover and check that its LED lights were functional. In this image, taken on September 7, 2012, the MAHLI is in the center of the screen with its LED on. The main purpose of Curiosity's MAHLI camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil from the Martian surface.
This is the open inlet where powdered rock and soil samples will be funneled down for analysis. The image is made up of eight photos taken on September 11, 2012, by MAHLI and is used to check that the instrument is operating correctly.
This is the calibration target for the MAHLI. This image, taken on September 9, 2012, shows that the surface of the calibration target is covered with a layor of dust as a result of the landing. The calibration target includes color references, a metric bar graphic, a penny for scale comparison, and a stair-step pattern for depth calibration.
This view of the three left wheels of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines two images that were taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager on September 9, 2012, the 34th day of Curiosity's work on Mars. In the distance is the lower slope of Mount Sharp.
This view of the lower front and underbelly areas of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager. Also visible are the hazard avoidance cameras on the front of the rover.
The penny in this image is part of a camera calibration target on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The image was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager camera.
The rover captured this mosiac of a rock feature called 'Snake River" on December 20, 2012.
The reclosable dust cover on Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager was opened for the first time on September 8, 2012, enabling MAHLI to take this image.
The Curiosity rover used a camera located on its arm to obtain this self-portrait on September 7, 2012. The image of the top of Curiosity's Remote Sensing Mast, showing the Mastcam and Chemcam cameras, was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager. The angle of the frame reflects the position of the MAHLI camera on the arm when the image was taken.
The left eye of the Mast Camera on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the rover's arm on Wednesday, September 5, 2012.
The rover drilled this hole, in a rock that's part of a flat outcrop researchers named "John Klein," during its first sample drilling on Mars on February 8.
The latest self-portrait of the rover combines dozens of images taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on February 3.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has taken its first set of nighttime photos, including this image of Martian rock illuminated by ultraviolet lights. Curiosity used the camera on its robotic arm, the Mars Hand Lens Imager, to capture the images on January 22.
Another nighttime image includes this rock called Sayunei in the Yellowknife Bay area of Mars' Gale Crater. Curiosity's front-left wheel had scraped the rock to inspect for fresh, dust-free materials in an area where drilling for rock soon will begin.
An area of windblown sand and dust downhill from a cluster of dark rocks has been selected as the likely location for the first use of the scoop on the arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.
Curiosity cut a wheel scuff mark into a wind-formed ripple at the "Rocknest" site on October 3, 2012. This gave researchers a better opportunity to examine the particle-size distribution of the material forming the ripple.
NASA's Curiosity rover found evidence for what scientists believe was an ancient, flowing stream on Mars at a few sites, including the rock outcrop pictured here. The key evidence for the ancient stream comes from the size and rounded shape of the gravel in and around the bedrock, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech science team. The rounded shape leads the science team to conclude they were transported by a vigorous flow of water. The grains are too large to have been moved by wind.
This photos shows an up-close look at an outcrop that also shows evidence of flowing water, according to the JPL/Caltech science team. The outcrop's characteristics are consistent with rock that was formed by the deposition of water and is composed of many smaller rounded rocks cemented together. Water transport is the only process capable of producing the rounded shape of conglomerate rock of this size.
Curiosity completed its longest drive to date on September 26, 2012. The rover moved about 160 feet east toward the area known as "Glenelg." As of that day the rover had moved about a quarter-mile from its landing site.
This image shows the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with the first rock touched by an instrument on the arm. The photo was taken by the rover's right navigation camera.
This image combines photographs taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager at three distances from the first Martian rock that NASA's Curiosity rover touched with its arm. The images reveal that the target rock has a relatively smooth, gray surface with some glinty facets reflecting sunlight and reddish dust collecting in recesses in the rock.
This rock will be the first target for Curiosity's contact instruments. Located on a turret at the end of the rover's arm, the contact instruments include the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer for reading a target's elemental composition and the Mars Hand Lens Imager for close-up imaging.
Researchers used the Curiosity rover's mast camera to take a photo of the Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer. The image was used to see if it had been caked in dust during the landing.
Researchers also used the mast camera to examine the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the rover to inspect its dust cover and check that its LED lights were functional. In this image, taken on September 7, 2012, the MAHLI is in the center of the screen with its LED on. The main purpose of Curiosity's MAHLI camera is to acquire close-up, high-resolution views of rocks and soil from the Martian surface.
This is the open inlet where powdered rock and soil samples will be funneled down for analysis. The image is made up of eight photos taken on September 11, 2012, by MAHLI and is used to check that the instrument is operating correctly.
This is the calibration target for the MAHLI. This image, taken on September 9, 2012, shows that the surface of the calibration target is covered with a layor of dust as a result of the landing. The calibration target includes color references, a metric bar graphic, a penny for scale comparison, and a stair-step pattern for depth calibration.
This view of the three left wheels of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines two images that were taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager on September 9, 2012, the 34th day of Curiosity's work on Mars. In the distance is the lower slope of Mount Sharp.
This view of the lower front and underbelly areas of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity was taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager. Also visible are the hazard avoidance cameras on the front of the rover.
The penny in this image is part of a camera calibration target on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity. The image was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager camera.
The rover captured this mosiac of a rock feature called 'Snake River" on December 20, 2012.
The reclosable dust cover on Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager was opened for the first time on September 8, 2012, enabling MAHLI to take this image.
The Curiosity rover used a camera located on its arm to obtain this self-portrait on September 7, 2012. The image of the top of Curiosity's Remote Sensing Mast, showing the Mastcam and Chemcam cameras, was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager. The angle of the frame reflects the position of the MAHLI camera on the arm when the image was taken.
The left eye of the Mast Camera on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of the rover's arm on Wednesday, September 5, 2012.
Sub-image one of three shows the rover and its tracks after a few short drives. Tracking the tracks will provide information on how the surface changes as dust is deposited and eroded.
Sub-image one of three shows the rover and its tracks after a few short drives. Tracking the tracks will provide information on how the surface changes as dust is deposited and eroded.
Sub-image two shows the parachute and backshell, now in color. The outer band of the parachute has a reddish color.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Sub-image two shows the parachute and backshell, now in color. The outer band of the parachute has a reddish color.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS- Mars Curiosity rover finds evidence of clay formations, or "mudstone"
- Clay may have held the key ingredients for life billions of years ago
- Scientist calls findings "a game changer"
Since Curiosity made its rock star landing more than a year ago at Gale Crater, the focal point of its mission, the roving laboratory has collected evidence that gives new insights into Mars' past environment.
MAVEN to study Mars from above
NASA scientists announced in March that Mars could have once hosted life -- at least, in the distant past, based on the chemical analysis of powder collected from Curiosity's drill. An area of the crater known as Yellowknife Bay once hosted "slightly salty liquid water," Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters in Washington, said earlier this year.
Six new studies released Monday by the journal Science add more insights about these formerly habitable conditions and provide other new knowledge that increase our understanding of the Red Planet. The results were also presented at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
Curiosity found evidence of clay formations, or "mudstone," in Yellowstone Bay, scientists said Monday. Martian mud is a big deal because this clay may have held the key ingredients for life billions of years ago. It means a lake must have existed in this area.
"This is a game changer since these are the kind of materials that are very 'Earth-like' and conducive for life," said Douglas Ming, lead author of one of the new studies.
This ancient environment, where the clay minerals formed, would have been favorable to microbes, Ming told CNN.
Some bacteria on Earth called chemolithoautotrophs could have lived in that kind of environment. These bacteria derive their energy from breaking down rocks and sediments, Ming said, generally by oxidizing elements in the rock.
Ming and colleagues also found hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus in the sedimentary rocks at Yellowknife Bay, elements that are all critical for life.
The new findings mean the rover's $2.5 billion mission is "turning the corner," said John Grotzinger, a California Institute of Technology planetary geologist and chief scientist for Curiosity, also known as the Mars Science Laboratory.
Grotzinger and colleagues found the habitable environment existed later in Martian history than previously thought. By studying physical characteristics of rock layers in and near Yellowknife Bay, they determined that Mars was habitable less than 4 billion years ago -- about the same time as the oldest signs we have for life on Earth.
The habitable conditions could have remained for millions to tens of millions of years, with rivers and lakes appearing and disappearing over time.
Curiosity also helped scientists figure out the age of an ancient Martian rock, as described in the new research. The rock is called Cumberland, and it now has the distinction of being the first whose age was measured on another planet through chemical analysis.
The rover used a method for dating Earth rocks that measures the decay of an isotope of potassium as it slowly changes into argon. Scientists determined the rock was between 3.86 billion and 4.56 billion years old. This age range is consistent with earlier estimates for rocks in Gale Crater.
Scientists say roughly 4 billion years ago, the environment on Mars wasn't much different from that of modern-day Earth. But things on Mars then took a drastic turn, and the planet was dramatically transformed from warm and wet to bitterly cold and dry, scientists say. In addition to the cold and dry conditions, scientists say the No. 1 reason life probably wouldn't have thrived on Mars is its extremely high levels of radiation.
"The radiation environment on Mars is unlike anything we have on Earth," said Jennifer Eigenbrode, a biogeochemist and geologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and an author of one of the studies. "We don't know if life on Mars could have ever adapted to the high levels of radiation the surface is currently experiencing."
Eigenbrode added, "This is a wide-open book, which we have barely started writing the pages of."
New radiation measurements will also be important to planning any human missions to Mars, scientists said.
"Our measurements also tie into Curiosity's investigations about habitability," study co-author Don Hassler of Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement. "The radiation sources that are concerns for human health also affect microbial survival as well as preservation of organic chemicals."
Organic chemicals come from a variety of sources, including meteorites and comets, but they can also be indicative of life.
What's bad for us is bad for signs of life -- but these organic chemicals could still be hiding on Mars nonetheless.
Better Health Care for More People at Less Cost from Bernie Sanders
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday introduced legislation to provide health care for every American through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system. Rep. Jim McDermott has filed a companion bill in the House.
Sanders supported the Affordable Care Act, but in an interview with The Daily Beast he called the health care law passed in 2010 “only a modest step forward toward dealing with the dysfunction of the American health-care system.” Even under the new law, Sanders added, insurance companies, drug companies and medical equipment suppliers will be able to rake off billions of dollars in profits rather than devoting those resources to providing health care.
Do you know who doesn’t like American health care? Americans don’t. A recent survey for the Commonwealth Fund of people in 11 countries found Americans were the least satisfied with their own health care system. The study looked at costs, wait times, barriers to access, quality of care and other measures. In the survey, 75 percent of Americans said our health care system needs fundamental changes or should be completely rebuilt.
"The United States is the only major nation in the industrialized world that does not guarantee health care as a right to its people," Sanders said. "Meanwhile, we spend about twice as much per capita on health care with worse results than other countries that spend far less. It is time that we bring about a fundamental transformation of the American health care system. It is time for us to end private, for-profit participation in delivering basic coverage. It is time for the United States to provide a Medicare-for-all single-payer health coverage program," Sanders said.
While making the case for a single-payer system nationwide, Sanders applauded his home state of Vermont for its progress toward developing its own single-payer system which could become a model for the nation.
Are Genes Really Selfish? -- A Fool's Perspective
Biologist Richard Dawkins coined the phrase "the selfish gene" with his best-selling book of the same name. "Selfish", however, was an unfortunate word choice because genes lack a will and can actually drive altruism. SA editor Eric Olson explains.
David Strumfels' Comments:
Eric Olson -- how many times does it have to be said, "Next time read a book before you criticize it." Dawkins has repeatedly explained over the decades exactly what he means by the selfish gene, and he has made it clear over and over and over again -- as if even a high school biology student even needs it explained -- that of course genes don't have wills or are selfish in the human sense. It's pure analogy: genes "act" as though they had selfish wills, and if you use that analogy prudently you will understand a great more about them, as Dawkins has over those decades (and helped me as well) and you clearly haven't.
Shame on Scientific American for printing this ancient rubbish; but then, you haven't been a real science magazine for some years now. Maybe if you hired some real science journalists and stopped trying to be a combo of real journal and dumbed-down pop sci magazine, you would regain your old respect.
Oh, and the portrait of Dawkins with a rather goofy grin -- that was just coincidence of course. Hunt around enough photos and of course you will find a few. Scientific value of a person's photo? Clearly none whatsoever; it's just there for prejudicial purposes. I won't even reproduce it.
I know Dawkins and others have posted more serious rebuttals than mine, so I'll stop here and "go out and dig in the garden, or something."
New long-lived greenhouse gas discovered by University of Toronto chemistry team
Chemical appears to have highest global-warming impact of any compound to date
Strumfels comment: the structure of this molecule is easily worked out as N(C4F9)3, which would make it a highly potent greenhouse gas in two different ways, like combining methane with CFCs. And it would be very stable chemically. Have we been able to measure it in the atmosphere though? It would be a very heavy gas (MW > 700), perhaps mostly liquid at STP(?), so I doubt there is much of it in the vapor phase; I suggest no more than a few ppt (parts per trillion) and possibly less. More research needs to be done here -- I doubt it will be easy to even detect, even by modern chromatography, if its level is that low. So it very well might not be a serious concern.
TORONTO, ON - Scientists from U of T’s Department of Chemistry have discovered a novel chemical lurking in the atmosphere that appears to be a long-lived greenhouse gas (LLGHG). The chemical – perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA) – is the most radiatively efficient chemical found to date, breaking all other chemical records for its potential to impact climate.
Radiative efficiency describes how effectively a molecule can affect climate. This value is then multiplied by its atmospheric concentration to determine the total climate impact.
PFTBA has been in use since the mid-20th century for various applications in electrical equipment and is currently used in thermally and chemically stable liquids marketed for use in electronic testing and as heat transfer agents. It does not occur naturally, that is, it is produced by humans. There are no known processes that would destroy or remove PFTBA in the lower atmosphere so it has a very long lifetime, possibly hundreds of years, and is destroyed in the upper atmosphere.
“Global warming potential is a metric used to compare the cumulative effects of different greenhouse gases on climate over a specified time period,” said Cora Young who was part of the U of T team, along with Angela Hong and their supervisor, Scott Mabury. Time is incorporated in the global warming potential metric as different compounds stay in the atmosphere for different lengths of time, which determines how long-lasting the climate impacts are.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is used as the baseline for comparison since it is the most important greenhouse gas responsible for human-induced climate change. “PFTBA is extremely long-lived in the atmosphere and it has a very high radiative efficiency; the result of this is a very high global warming potential. Calculated over a 100-year timeframe, a single molecule of PFTBA has the equivalent climate impact as 7100 molecules of CO2,” said Hong.
The research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and was published online at Geophysical Research Letters on November 27, 2013.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Meet the Senate Candidate Who Might be Too Crazy for Texas -- or not.
By Tim Murphy
Tue Dec. 10, 2013 7:31 AM GMT
David Strumfels -- well, he is rather off-center, even for a conservative Republican politician from Texas, but he is right about at least one thing. E.g., his quote, "The best thing about the Earth is if you poke holes in it oil and gas come out," is NOT nuts as Mother Jones and I imagine most left-leaning. Let e respond with my quote:
"Stockman is right -- though I'm sure he meant it in jocularly. Why (so many) liberals don't perceive the near miracle of fracking and natural gas (and even oil to a lesser extent) is beyond me; to the extent gas replaces coal (and oil) the air is cleaner, greenhouse emissions are at least halved, and the environment is improved. These are not my opinions but scientific truths demonstrated over and over again over many years. Again I implore you Mother Jones: be as leftwing as you want, but don't apply it to science because science has no biases, politically or ideologically or economically." You know, out of all the vast legitimate material below, the one sensible thing is isolated out and made to look like the craziest. Being left-wing doesn't make you right about everything, anymore than being right-wing. Please learn this simple truth.
Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas). If his very short career in Washington is any indication, Stockman will at least give us a reason to tune in. Some highlights from his second term in Congress:
undermined (Sen.) Ted Cruz’s fight to stop Obamacare
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/tea-party-favorite-takes-on-gop-big-name/#EWwys4WrHXRiUYdf.99
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/tea-party-favorite-takes-on-gop-big-name/#EWwys4WrHXRiUYdf.99
- His campaign bumper sticker: "If babies had guns, they wouldn't be aborted."
- This tweet: "The best thing about the Earth is if you poke holes in it oil and gas come out."
- And this one: "Democrats are playing the knockout game with your health insurance."
- The time he raffled off an AR-15 as a campaign fundraiser.
- The second time he raffled off an AR-15 as a campaign fundraiser.
- His interview with Ted Nugent, in which he wondered whether victims of gun violence who advocated for gun control were "useful idiots"?
- His decision to bring Nugent as his plus one to last year's state of the union.
- His (empty) threat to impeach President Obama over gun control.
- The time he compared Obama to Saddam Hussein.
- The time he explained he would vote against the Violence Against Women Act because it helps "men dressed up as women."
- The $350,000 in income that's unexplained in his personal financial disclosures.
Brain Connectivity Study Reveals Striking Differences Between Men and Women
Penn Medicine Brain Imaging Study Helps Explain Different Cognitive Strengths in Men and Women
PHILADELPHIA — A new brain connectivity study from Penn Medicine published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found striking differences in the neural wiring of men and women that’s lending credence to some commonly-held beliefs about their behavior.
University of Pennsylvania Health System
In one of the largest studies looking at the “connectomes” of the sexes, Ragini Verma, PhD, an associate professor in the department of Radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues found greater neural connectivity from front to back and within one hemisphere in males, suggesting their brains are structured to facilitate connectivity between perception and coordinated action. In contrast, in females, the wiring goes between the left and right hemispheres, suggesting that they facilitate communication between the analytical and intuition.
“These maps show us a stark difference--and complementarity--in the architecture of the human brain that helps provide a potential neural basis as to why men excel at certain tasks, and women at others,” said Verma.
For instance, on average, men are more likely better at learning and performing a single task at hand, like cycling or navigating directions, whereas women have superior memory and social cognition skills, making them more equipped for multitasking and creating solutions that work for a group. They have a mentalistic approach, so to speak.
Past studies have shown sex differences in the brain, but the neural wiring connecting regions across the whole brain that have been tied to such cognitive skills has never been fully shown in a large population.
In the study, Verma and colleagues, including co-authors Ruben C. Gur, PhD, a professor of psychology in the department of Psychiatry, and Raquel E. Gur, MD, PhD, professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Radiology, investigated the gender-specific differences in brain connectivity during the course of development in 949 individuals (521 females and 428 males) aged 8 to 22 years using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). DTI is water-based imaging technique that can trace and highlight the fiber pathways connecting the different regions of the brain, laying the foundation for a structural connectome or network of the whole brain.
This sample of youths was studied as part of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort, a National Institute of Mental Health-funded collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania Brain Behavior Laboratory and the Center for Applied Genomics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The brain is a roadmap of neural pathways linking many networks that help us process information and react accordingly, with behavior controlled by several of these sub-networks working in conjunction.
In the study, the researchers found that females displayed greater connectivity in the supratentorial region, which contains the cerebrum, the largest part of the brain, between the left and right hemispheres. Males, on the other hand, displayed greater connectivity within each hemisphere.
By contrast, the opposite prevailed in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that plays a major role in motor control, where males displayed greater inter-hemispheric connectivity and females displayed greater intra-hemispheric connectivity.
These connections likely give men an efficient system for coordinated action, where the cerebellum and cortex participate in bridging between perceptual experiences in the back of the brain, and action, in the front of the brain, according to the authors. The female connections likely facilitate integration of the analytic and sequential processing modes of the left hemisphere with the spatial, intuitive information processing modes of the right side.
The authors observed only a few gender differences in the connectivity in children younger than 13 years, but the differences were more pronounced in adolescents aged 14 to 17 years and young adults older than 17.
The findings were also consistent with a Penn behavior study, of which this imaging study was a subset of, that demonstrated pronounced sexual differences. Females outperformed males on attention, word and face memory, and social cognition tests. Males performed better on spatial processing and sensorimotor speed. Those differences were most pronounced in the 12 to 14 age range.
“It’s quite striking how complementary the brains of women and men really are,” said Dr. Ruben Gur. “Detailed connectome maps of the brain will not only help us better understand the differences between how men and women think, but it will also give us more insight into the roots of neuropsychiatric disorders, which are often sex related.”
Next steps are to quantify how an individual’s neural connections are different from the population; identify which neural connections are gender specific and common in both; and to see if findings from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies fall in line with the connectome data.
Co-authors of the study include Madhura Ingalhalikar, Alex Smith, Drew Parker, Theodore D. Satterthwaite, Mark A. Elliott, Kosha Ruparel, and Hakon Hakonarson of the Section of Biomedical Image Analysis and the Center for Biomedical Image Computing and Analytics.
This study was funded by in part by the National Institutes of Mental Health: MH089983, MH089924, MH079938, and MH092862.
Brain networks show increased connectivity from front to back and within one hemisphere in males (upper) and left to right in females (lower).
Credit: Ragini Verma, PhD, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Credit: Ragini Verma, PhD, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Related Links
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania Health System
“These maps show us a stark difference--and complementarity--in the architecture of the human brain that helps provide a potential neural basis as to why men excel at certain tasks, and women at others,” said Verma.
For instance, on average, men are more likely better at learning and performing a single task at hand, like cycling or navigating directions, whereas women have superior memory and social cognition skills, making them more equipped for multitasking and creating solutions that work for a group. They have a mentalistic approach, so to speak.
Past studies have shown sex differences in the brain, but the neural wiring connecting regions across the whole brain that have been tied to such cognitive skills has never been fully shown in a large population.
In the study, Verma and colleagues, including co-authors Ruben C. Gur, PhD, a professor of psychology in the department of Psychiatry, and Raquel E. Gur, MD, PhD, professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Radiology, investigated the gender-specific differences in brain connectivity during the course of development in 949 individuals (521 females and 428 males) aged 8 to 22 years using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). DTI is water-based imaging technique that can trace and highlight the fiber pathways connecting the different regions of the brain, laying the foundation for a structural connectome or network of the whole brain.
This sample of youths was studied as part of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort, a National Institute of Mental Health-funded collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania Brain Behavior Laboratory and the Center for Applied Genomics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The brain is a roadmap of neural pathways linking many networks that help us process information and react accordingly, with behavior controlled by several of these sub-networks working in conjunction.
In the study, the researchers found that females displayed greater connectivity in the supratentorial region, which contains the cerebrum, the largest part of the brain, between the left and right hemispheres. Males, on the other hand, displayed greater connectivity within each hemisphere.
By contrast, the opposite prevailed in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that plays a major role in motor control, where males displayed greater inter-hemispheric connectivity and females displayed greater intra-hemispheric connectivity.
These connections likely give men an efficient system for coordinated action, where the cerebellum and cortex participate in bridging between perceptual experiences in the back of the brain, and action, in the front of the brain, according to the authors. The female connections likely facilitate integration of the analytic and sequential processing modes of the left hemisphere with the spatial, intuitive information processing modes of the right side.
The authors observed only a few gender differences in the connectivity in children younger than 13 years, but the differences were more pronounced in adolescents aged 14 to 17 years and young adults older than 17.
The findings were also consistent with a Penn behavior study, of which this imaging study was a subset of, that demonstrated pronounced sexual differences. Females outperformed males on attention, word and face memory, and social cognition tests. Males performed better on spatial processing and sensorimotor speed. Those differences were most pronounced in the 12 to 14 age range.
“It’s quite striking how complementary the brains of women and men really are,” said Dr. Ruben Gur. “Detailed connectome maps of the brain will not only help us better understand the differences between how men and women think, but it will also give us more insight into the roots of neuropsychiatric disorders, which are often sex related.”
Next steps are to quantify how an individual’s neural connections are different from the population; identify which neural connections are gender specific and common in both; and to see if findings from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies fall in line with the connectome data.
Co-authors of the study include Madhura Ingalhalikar, Alex Smith, Drew Parker, Theodore D. Satterthwaite, Mark A. Elliott, Kosha Ruparel, and Hakon Hakonarson of the Section of Biomedical Image Analysis and the Center for Biomedical Image Computing and Analytics.
This study was funded by in part by the National Institutes of Mental Health: MH089983, MH089924, MH079938, and MH092862.
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