Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences -- Evolutionary Medicine 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. The
     group meets every other Friday during the academic year 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 -- Friday, February 19 @ 2 pm (Condon 313)**

     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.

    Future Meetings -- March 5

    Archive of Past Meetings and Readings

     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.

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Evolutionary Medicine Resources
    Evolution and Medicine Review
    Lancet December 2008 Issue
    BU Phylogeny of Sleep Project
    Evolutionary Medicine Lectures
    Evolution & Medicine Network
    Stearns and Koella Evol Med Syllabus

Evolutionary Medicine Books
    Gluckman's Principles of Evol Med
    Ewald's Evolution of Infect. Disease
    Pollard's Western Diseases
    Trevathan et al. Evol. Med. & Health
    Stearns' Evol in Health & Disease

Interesting Links
    Biglan's Nurturing Environments Blog