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Pizza Talk: Steve Gaulin -Good Fat / Bad Fat 2.0: A worsening dietary mismatch with dramatic effects on cognitive function
Abstract: Rapid environmental change can cause adaptive mismatch and dietary mismatches may explain some chronic disease patterns in Westernized populations. Current dietary imbalances of neurologically important omega-3 and omega-6 fats are evolutionary novel and predicted to compromise brain function. We use nations as the units of analysis, the fatty acid profile of human milk as an index of omega-3/omega-6 supply (after metabolic competition between them), and average PISA performance (three tests over the two most recent administrations) as a measure of cognitive performance. With both milk and PISA data available for 28 countries, DHA (the most neurologically important omega-3) and linoleic acid (the most abundant and hence competitive omega-6) jointly explain 48% of the variance in cognitive performance. No additional variance is explained by important socio-economic variables such as per capita gross domestic product and per-student expenditures on public education. Causes and possible solutions to this dietary mismatch will be discussed.
Professor Gaulin is a biological anthropologist with special interests in the force of sexual selection in human evolution and in evolution of psychological mechanisms. He has several current research initiatives: the evolution of female fat metabolism and associated male mating preferences; sex differences in the human voice; sex differences in spatial cognition; and the role of immune factors in human mating.
Dueling Infections: Researchers find parasitic worms limit the effects of giardia, and vice versa.
UCSB Anthropologists publish findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Continue Reading Dueling Infections: Researchers find parasitic worms limit the effects of giardia, and vice versa.
Tsimane Bolivian Flood Relief Fund
Recent severe flooding in Bolivia has left hundreds displaced, including the indigenous Tsimane. A group of researchers and doctors working with them have set up an independent fund to help them. See full article for link to external fundraising site.
Continue Reading Tsimane Bolivian Flood Relief FundThe Evolutionary Benefit of Human Personality Traits
UCSB Anthropologist's findings appear online in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
Continue Reading The Evolutionary Benefit of Human Personality Traits
Gurven & Trumble awarded NSF grant to study Bolivian flood responses
"RAPID: Surviving the Flood: Vulnerability, Risk Management, and Resilience after a Natural Disaster"
Continue Reading Gurven & Trumble awarded NSF grant to study Bolivian flood responses
Graduate Student Dana Bardolph awarded Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant
Exploring changes in plant foodways and agricultural production that corresponded with the rise of the Moche state (A.D. 1-300), Peru
Continue Reading Graduate Student Dana Bardolph awarded Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant
Associate Professor Amber VanDerwarker receives Distinguished Teaching Award for 2013-14
Uniting Teaching and Research.
Continue Reading Associate Professor Amber VanDerwarker receives Distinguished Teaching Award for 2013-14
Trepanation in South-Central Peru during the early late intermediate period (ca. AD 1000–1250)
Visiting Assistant Professor Danielle Kurin in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Continue Reading Trepanation in South-Central Peru during the early late intermediate period (ca. AD 1000–1250)