Evolutionary Medicine Focus Group
The Evolutionary Medicine Group is a discussion and project group run through the Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences at the University of Oregon and organized by Josh Snodgrass. During the 2011-2012 academic year, the group will meet every other Tuesday (from 4-5 in Condon 313) to discuss recent research in evolutionary medicine and to develop and pursue collaborative research projects. The group includes members from a variety of UO campus units, including Anthropology, Human Physiology, Political Science, Psychology, and Biology and, additionally, includes participants from Oregon State University, Oregon Social Learning Center, and Oregon Research Institute. If you are interested in learning more about the group, contact Josh Snodgrass.
Next Meeting
Future Meetings Schedule
Archive of Past Meetings and Readings
Evolutionary Medicine Resources
Next Meeting
Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 4-5 pm (Condon 313)
Stress and Health: Depression/Loneliness and Protective Factors
Hafner et al. 2012. To live alone and to be depressed, an alarming combination for the renin-angiotensin-aldosteronesystem
(RAAS). Psychoneuroendocrinology. (link to article)
.
Chen et al. 2012. Protective factors for adults from low-childhood socioeconomic circumstances: The benefits of shift-and-persist for allostatic load. Psychosomatic Medicine. (link to article)
Future Meetings — Winter Term 2012 Schedule
January 10 & 31
February 14 & 28
March 13
Archive of Past Meetings and Readings
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Plasticity, Genetics, and Adaptation
Kuzawa and Thayer. 2011. Timescales of human adaptation: the role of epigenetic processes. Epigenomics.
Wells and Stock. 2011. Re-examining heritability: genetics, life history and plasticity. Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Food, Eating, and Human Biology
Wiley, Allen, and Brewis. 2012. Human biology eats: Contemporary research and future directions. American Journal of Human Biology, in press Allen. 2012. ‘‘Theory of Food’’ as a neurocognitive adaptation. American Journal of Human Biology, in press
Wiley. 2012. Cow milk consumption, insulin-like growth factor-I, and human biology: A life history approach. American Journal of Human Biology, in press
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Stress and the HPA Axis: An Evolutionary and Ecological Perspective
Flinn et al. 2011. Evolutionary functions of early social modulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis development in humans. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.
Nyberg. 2011. Diurnal cortisol rhythms in Tsimane’ Amazonian foragers: New insights into ecological HPA axis research. Psychoneuroendocrinology.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
The Evolution of Middle Childhood
Campbell. 2011. An introduction to the special issue on middle childhood. Human Nature 22: 247-248.
Thompson and Nelson. 2011. Middle childhood and modern human origins. Human Nature 22: 249-280.
Lancy and Grove. 2011. Getting noticed: Middle childhood in cross-cultural perspective. Human Nature 22: 281-302.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Nutrition transition in the Amazon
Piperata et al. 2011. The nutrition transition in Amazonia: Rapid economic change and its impact on growth and development in Ribeirinhos. Am J Phys Anthropol.
Nardoto et al. 2011. Frozen chicken for wild fish: Nutritional transition in the Brazilian Amazon region determined by carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios in fingernails. Am J Hum Biol.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Genetic evidence for pathogens as the main selective pressure in human evolution
Fumagalli et al. 2011. Signatures of Environmental Genetic Adaptation Pinpoint Pathogens as the Main Selective Pressure through Human Evolution. PLoS Genetics.
Willyard. 2011. Nature News: Parasites Drove Human Genetic Variation. Nature.
Hancock et al. 2011. Adaptations to Climate-Mediated Selective Pressures in Humans. PLoS Genetics.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Evolution by natural selection in contemporary human populations
Milot et al. 2011. Evidence for evolution in response to natural selection in a contemporary human population. PNAS.
Byars et al. 2010. Natural selection in a contemporary human population. PNAS.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
An evolutionary perspective on human microbiota
Blaser. 2011. Stop the killing of beneficial bacteria. Nature.
Dominguez-Bello et al. 2010. Delivery mode shapes the acquisition and structure of the initial microbiota across multiple body habitats in newborns. PNAS.
Arumugam et al. 2011. Enterotypes of the human gut microbiome. Nature.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
An Evolutionary Perspective on Happiness
Weiss et al. 2011. Happy orang-utans live longer lives. Biology Letters.
Buss. 2000. The evolution of happiness. American Psychologist.
Oswald & Wu. 2010. Objective confirmation of subjective measures of human well-being: Evidence from the USA. Science.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Evolutionary Constraint and Ecological Consequences
Futuyma D. 2010. Evolutionary Constraint and Ecological Consequences. Evolution.
October 29, 2010
Helminths, Human Evolution, and Global Health
Hurtado et al. 2008. The role of helminthes in human evolution: Implications for global health in the 21st century.
In: Elton & O’Higgins (Eds.) Medicine and Evolution: Current Applications, Future Prospects. Taylor & Francis.
October 15, 2010
Inflammation, Infection, and Cardiovascular Disease
Vasunilashorn et al. 2010. Blood lipids, infection, and inflammatory markers in the Tsimane of Bolivia. Am J Hum Biol.
Gurven et al. 2009. Inflammation and infection do not promote arterial aging and cardiovascular disease risk factors among lean horticulturalists. PLoS ONE.
February 19, 2010
Detecting Selection in the Human Genome
MacCallum & Hill. 2006. Being positive about selection. PLoS Biology.
Pickrell et al. 2009. Signals of recent positive selection in a worldwide sample of human populations. Genome.
Perry et al. 2007. Diet and the evolution of human amylase gene copy number variation. Nature Genetics.
February 5, 2010
Reproductive Cancers
Strassmann. 1999. Menstrual cycling and breast cancer: An evolutionary perspective. J Women’s Health.
Greaves. 2000. Men’s problems. From Cancer: The Evolutionary Legacy (Ch. 16).
Pollard. 2008. Reproductive cancers. From Western Diseases (Ch. 5).
January 22, 2010
Thrifty Genes and Obesity
Wells. 2009. Thrift: A guide to thrifty genes, thrifty phenotypes and thrifty norms. Int J Obesity.
Wells. 2009. Ethnic variability in adiposity and cardiovascular risk: The variable disease selection hypothesis.
Int J Epidemiology.
Speakman. 2008. Thrifty genes for obesity, an attractive but flawed idea, and an alternate perspective: The
‘drifty gene’ hypothesis. Int J Obesity.
An additional article related to our discussion:
Pollard. 2008. The thrifty genotype versus thrifty phenotype debate: Efforts to explain between population
variation in rates of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. From Western Diseases (Ch.4).
May 29, 2009
High Altitude Adaptation (with special guest Dr. Abby Bigham from the Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington)
Beall. 2007. Detecting natural selection in high-altitude human populations.
Resp Phys & Neuro 158: 161-171.
Julian et al. 2009. Evolutionary adaptation to high altitude: A view from in utero. Am J Hum Biol.
May 15, 2009
Social Networks and Health
Smith and Christakis. 2008. Social networks and health. Annu Rev Sociol 34: 405-429.
Uchino. 2006. Social support and health: A review of physiological processes underlying links to disease
outcomes. J Behav Med 29: 377.
Couzin. 2009. Friendship as a health factor. Science 323: 454.
Some additional readings related to our discussion. These all come from John Cacioppo’s
recent book Loneliness (published in 2008):
Cacioppo and Patrick. Lonely in a social world (Ch. 1).
Cacioppo and Patrick. The wear and tear of loneliness (Ch. 6).
Cacioppo and Patrick. The power of social connection (Ch. 14).
There’s also a website for the book (http://scienceofloneliness.com/).
May 1, 2009
Stress and Health in Humans and Non-Human Primates
Sapolsky. 2005. The influence of social hierarchy on primate health. Science 308: 648.
McEwen. 2008. Central effects of stress hormones in health and disease: Understanding the protective and
damaging effects of stress and stress mediators. Eur J Pharmacology 583: 174.
Michaud et al. 2008. Impact of stressors in a natural context on release of cortisol in healthy adult humans.
Stress 11: 177.
April 17, 2009
Psychosocial Stress during Prenatal Life and Childhood
Flinn. 2008. Why words can hurt us: Social relationships, stress, and health. In: Trevathan et al (eds.) Evolutionary
Medicine and Health: New Perspectives.
Field and Diego. 2008. Cortisol: The culprit prenatal stress variable. Int J Neuroscience 118: 1181.
March 6, 2009
Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
Gluckman et al. 2007. Early life events and their consequences for later disease. Am J Hum Biol 19: 1.
Some additional articles related to our discussion:
Gluckman et al. 2008. Effect of in utero and early-life conditions on adult health and disease. NEJM 359: 61.
Jasienska et al. 2006. Fatness at birth predicts adult susceptibility to ovarian suppression: An empirical test of the
Predictive Adaptive Response hypothesis. PNAS 103: 12759.
Keith et al. 2006. Putative contributors to the secular increase in obesity: Exploring the roads less traveled. Int J
Obesity 30: 1585.
Brumbach et al. 2009. Effects of harsh and unpredictable environments in adolescence on development of life
history strategies: A longitudinal test of an evolutionary model. Hum Nat 20: 25.
Altmann and Alberts. 2005. Growth rates in a wild primate population: Ecological influences and maternal effects.
Behav Ecol Sociobiol 31: 241.
February 20, 2009
Schizophrenia
Crow. 1997. Is schizophrenia the price that Homo sapiens pays for language? Schizophrenia Research 28:
127-141.
Brune. 2004. Schizophrenia–An evolutionary enigma? Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 28:
41-53.
Some additional articles related to our discussion:
Sapolsky. 1997. Circling the blanket for God. In: The Trouble with Testosterone.
Malaspina et al. 2008. Acute maternal stress in pregnancy and schizophrenia in offspring. BMC Psychiatry 8: 71.
Crespi et al. 2007. Adaptive evolution of genes underlying schizophrenia. Proc R Soc B 274: 2801.
Badcock and Crespi. 2006. Imbalanced genomic imprinting in brain development: An evolutionary basis for the
aetiology of autism. J Evol Biol 19: 1007.
Crespi and Badcock. 2008. Psychosis and autism as diametrical disorders of the social brain. Behav Brain Sci
31: 241.
February 6, 2009:
Autism
Hertz-Picciotto and Delwiche. 2009. The rise in autism and the role of age at diagnosis. Epidemiology 20:
84-90.
Ashwin et al. 2009. Eagle-eyed visual acuity: An experimental investigation of enhanced perception in autism.
Biol Psychiatry 65: 17-21.
Baron-Cohen. 2006. Two new theories of autism: Hyper-systemising and assortive mating. Arch Dis Childhood
91: 2-5.
January 23, 2009
Skeletal Health and Osteoporosis
Agarwal and Stuart-Macadam. 2003. An evolutionary and biocultural approach to understanding the effects of
reproductive factors on the female skeleton. In: Agarwal and Stout (eds.) Bone Loss and Osteoporosis: An
Anthropological Perspective.
Stini. 1995. Osteoporosis in biocultural perspective. Annu Rev Anthropol 24: 397-421.
May 30, 2008
The Evolution of Childbirth
Trevathan. 1999. Evolutionary obstetrics. In: Trevathan et al. (eds.) Evolutionary Medicine.
Oxford U Press, p. 183-207.
Trevathan and Rosenberg. 2000. The shoulders follow the head: Postcranial constraints on human
childbirth. J Hum Evol 39: 583-586.
Walrath. 2003. Rethinking pelvic typologies and the human birth mechanism. Curr Anthropol
44: 5-31.
May 16, 2008
HIV
Rambaut et al. 2004. The causes and consequences of HIV evolution.
Woolhouse and Gaunt. 2007. Ecological origins of novel human pathogens.
Galvani and Novembre. 2005. The evolutionary history of the CCR5-D32 HIV-resistance mutation.
May 2, 2008:
Addiction
Lende. 2008. Evolution and modern behavioral problems: The case of addiction.
Gerald and Higley. 2002. Evolutionary underpinnings of excessive alcohol consumption.
April 4, 2008
Sleep
Worthman. 2008. After dark: The evolutionary ecology of human sleep.
Siegel. 2005. Clues to the function of mammalian sleep.
March 7, 2008
Asthma
Hurtado et al. 1999. The evolutionary ecology of childhood asthma.
February 22, 2008
Introduction to Evolutionary Medicine
Williams and Nesse. 1991. The dawn of Darwinian medicine.
Trevathan. 2008. Introduction and overview of evolutionary medicine.
Stearns et al. 2008. Introducing evolutionary thinking for medicine.