Psychologist Rebecca Spencer, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, conducted an interesting experiment on children between three and five. She demonstrated that those allowed to nap after learning about matching picture cards did much better in follow up games. Her finding is consistent with research on the role of sleep conducted on mice where scientists have found that sleep enhances the immune system and helps to consolidate memories. In more direct evidence of the value of sleep, a colored dye was tracked in the brains of sleeping mice demonstrating that channels expand greatly increasing the flow of cerebral spinal fluid, clearing away waste products from the brain’s activities. Some of this waste is thought to be associated with the plaques leading to Alzheimer’s disease, as reported in the December 20, 2013 issue of Science. Take a nap.
A lot happened to me between the age of thirty and fifty. Is it possible that the children I sired at the later age received genetic information from these experiences? A yes answer corresponds to Lamarck’s ideas back in 1801 about transfer of acquired information from one generation to the next. There is a great deal of evidence that Lamarckian theory is connected to epigenetic changes in the otherwise invariant DNA sequences that control us, something once addressed in this column (http://blogs.poly.edu/markgreen/?s=Lamarck). Now scientists see this at work in coral reefs, which respond to climate warming by adaptations on a short time scale, such as consistent with epigenetic changes, which are then passed on to later generations of the coral.
I’m old enough to remember when tomatoes tasted great and looked terrible by today’s standards. Now many of us think the tomatoes look great but most agree they are tasteless. Scientists at Cornell University have discovered that a natural mutation in the genetic complement of the tomato plant, designated SIGLK2 which adds a single base (a tiny change) is responsible for the transformation. Fewer chloroplasts are produced with the consequence of reduced production of sugar in the plant and also sensory molecules such as lycopene and related molecules responsible for the aroma and flavor of the tomato. Lycopene production depends on photosynthesis carried on in the chloroplasts. Other the last seventy years, according to the Cornell researcher, James J. Giovannoni, breeders have focused on breeding plants that produce better-looking tomatoes. In other words the plants supplying us with tomatoes now favor the extra base in that gene, which is why they are uniformly red without green color in the skin, which would signal the presences of the photosynthesizing chloroplasts.
Psychologists at the Universities of California, Southern California and Illinois in Chicago have looked into widely reported findings by earlier researchers showing that people who identify with politically conservative views are happier than those with liberal views. That work was based on what is called self-reported data. In other words asking people. In this new work what is called a more reliable probe is used, the way people smile. There are different kinds of smiles, one involving only the mouth and the other involving the mouth and the eyes, which psychologists can measure and using this probe they find the opposite: by the new measure, political liberals are in fact happier. This is not a big surprise to me. When my wife allows, I turn on right-wing radio in the car. I like to hear opposing views. My favorites, Sean Hennity, Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh are usually outraged and angry, not very happy.
Well now let’s get cheered up. I recommend to all us old-timers an article in the October 31, 2014 issue of Science entitled: “Plasticity of the aging brain: New directions in cognitive neuroscience,” which informs its readers that the aging brain once thought to be declining in its capacity is rather increasing in plasticity. What does that mean? Memory training programs and neurostimulation apparently can cause changes in the aging brain, which is allowed by the plasticity of the brain, to yield generally improved memory, reduction of stress, improving mood and sleep and increasing levels of intellectual activity among other benefits. Get off the couch and use that topside organ, ladies and gentlemen.
