In this lecture at the Cal Academy of Sciences, Sapolsky provides a high level overview of his research findings in biology, neurology, and primatology. Also, bizarrely, he wears a tie.
He begins with a story about a fly neurogenetic researcher. This individual made the argument that flies and humans are very similar and it's only people's lack of knowledge that leads them to think otherwise. How can this be? Well, roughly the same number of genes, in some cases identical genes, the neurons are the same - same resting potentials, action potentials, neurotransmitters, etc.
But of course Sapolsky is much smarter than that guy and he points out that his take was that it establishes the fact that these genes, neurotransmitters, etc. are not what makes humans human because it had just been shown that there is nothing distinct in that realm. Instead the topics for this talk will focus on the following three themes that actually do address what makes humans human.
1. Ways in which humans are just like any other animal.
2. Ways in which humans have the same basic design but use it in a novel way.
3. Ways in which humans are entirely different.
Ways in which humans are just like any other animal.
First up is the Wellesley Effect. A female hamster placed in a cage with another female hamster will soon sync its ovulation and menstrual cycle up with the other female. The pattern is consistent with the more submissive female adjusting to the more dominant female. Add in a male, or even just the scent of the male's pheromones, and the effect goes away.
Extraordinary and odd as this is, humans do the same thing. First discovered at Wellesley College in 1971. Wellesley is a private liberal arts college in Massachusetts for women.
Ways in which humans have the same basic design but use it in a novel way.
Next he describes a chess match between two grand masters who, despite being engaged in no activity other than sitting and thinking, will demonstrate a chemical profile consistent with a marathon runner and who will have adrenaline and glucocorticoid spikes mirroring a lion bringing down its prey when they make a winning move. The remarkable point here is the extent to which the human brain can drive the behavior of cells through thought alone. The downside to this is that it makes us susceptible to stress related diseases because we are turning on the stress response with our thoughts and concerns over abstract items like mortality and 30 year mortgages and the repeated release of these glucocorticoid storms wreaks havoc on our bodies. (This is the focus of his book, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.)
Ways in which humans are entirely different.
Here the example is a straightforward one - a human couple that goes to work, comes home, has dinner, goes to bed, has sex, talks, sleeps, repeats. No other animal would find this a normal pattern. As he states, hippos would be repulsed by it. Perhaps Bonobo Monkeys would be similar but non-reproductive mating is not a common thing in the animal kingdom.
But of course Sapolsky is much smarter than that guy and he points out that his take was that it establishes the fact that these genes, neurotransmitters, etc. are not what makes humans human because it had just been shown that there is nothing distinct in that realm. Instead the topics for this talk will focus on the following three themes that actually do address what makes humans human.
1. Ways in which humans are just like any other animal.
2. Ways in which humans have the same basic design but use it in a novel way.
3. Ways in which humans are entirely different.
Ways in which humans are just like any other animal.
First up is the Wellesley Effect. A female hamster placed in a cage with another female hamster will soon sync its ovulation and menstrual cycle up with the other female. The pattern is consistent with the more submissive female adjusting to the more dominant female. Add in a male, or even just the scent of the male's pheromones, and the effect goes away.
Extraordinary and odd as this is, humans do the same thing. First discovered at Wellesley College in 1971. Wellesley is a private liberal arts college in Massachusetts for women.
Ways in which humans have the same basic design but use it in a novel way.
Next he describes a chess match between two grand masters who, despite being engaged in no activity other than sitting and thinking, will demonstrate a chemical profile consistent with a marathon runner and who will have adrenaline and glucocorticoid spikes mirroring a lion bringing down its prey when they make a winning move. The remarkable point here is the extent to which the human brain can drive the behavior of cells through thought alone. The downside to this is that it makes us susceptible to stress related diseases because we are turning on the stress response with our thoughts and concerns over abstract items like mortality and 30 year mortgages and the repeated release of these glucocorticoid storms wreaks havoc on our bodies. (This is the focus of his book, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.)
Ways in which humans are entirely different.
Here the example is a straightforward one - a human couple that goes to work, comes home, has dinner, goes to bed, has sex, talks, sleeps, repeats. No other animal would find this a normal pattern. As he states, hippos would be repulsed by it. Perhaps Bonobo Monkeys would be similar but non-reproductive mating is not a common thing in the animal kingdom.
