Fetching faces and friendly foxes

Selective breeding of foxes reveals why with humans, beauty rules

2013-09-25

(Press-News.org) "What is beautiful is good" -- but why? A recent article in The Quarterly Review of Biology provides a compelling physiological explanation for the "beauty stereotype": why human beings are wired to favor the beautiful ones.

Studies have shown that humans subconsciously attribute positive social qualities (such as integrity, intelligence, and happiness) to physically attractive individuals. Even across cultures there exists a significant consensus on relative beauty: youthful facial features, including, for women, relatively large eyes, a relatively high craniofacial ratio, and a relatively small jaw. In an article published in the September 2013 issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology, Dr. I. Elia, an independent scholar at Cambridge University, bridges genetics, physical and social anthropology, and psychology to interpret the findings of the "farm fox experiment" in Russia to reveal "a possible and replicable demonstration of the origin of beauty while inadvertently illuminating its ancient philosophical connection to goodness via a plausible neurohormonal pathway."

Silver foxes (Vulpes vulpes) were selectively bred for "friendly" behavior toward humans. Within 20 years, a tame line of communicative, trusting, and playful foxes was achieved. Researchers also noticed that in addition to desirable behavioral traits, the foxes also experienced more rapid development to maturity and displayed more "attractive" and more juvenile physical features, including rounder skulls and flatter faces, with smaller noses and shorter muzzles. That these neotenic changes resulted from genetically controlled alterations in friendly behavior may suggest that to humans, facial beauty signals an individual's relatively greater level of approachability and sociability.

In the experiment, selection for "friendly" appeared to affect genes controlling the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which modulates both fear and aggression. Selection to reduce both these states in order to obtain more friendly foxes alters the triad's function, with consequent changes in hormone levels that, due to earlier physical maturation, also affect diverse physical features. Earlier skeletal maturation means that the sutures at the base of the skull fuse sooner, making the skull more domed and giving the higher craniofacial ratio and foreshortened face human beings find endearing.

Natural selective pressure for approachability must have similarly prevailed in the evolution of mammals, because too-aggressive or too-fearful individuals would have interfered with the feeding and survival of offspring. Because young and female mammals are traditionally more involved than males in early feeding, it is not surprising that neotenic faces and behaviors generally appear in young and female mammals -- and that this particular emotion-evoking facial structure links to friendly, interactive, calm, trusting, and social behaviors.

Some neotenic changes may underpin the ability to interact, cooperate, and learn in humans and other species. Intuitive or deliberate selection appears to have enhanced the neotenic package, which predisposes to calm, curious, and caring rapport among individuals. Studies have consistently found that relative facial attractiveness in both children and adults (females and males) significantly correlates with social performance and with intelligence measured by IQ. This has set the stage for learning and cooperation within and between several mammalian species, and is likely due to changes in genes controlling the HPA axis, which then produces similar downstream effects in diverse species when rapport behavior is chosen. Although more supporting research is needed, it appears that species as different as bonobos and killer whales may have selected themselves for approachability, with consequent key behavioral and structural traits (including crowded teeth!) that are shared by them, humans, and domesticated animals.

INFORMATION:

Elia, I. E. "A Foxy View of Human Beauty: Implications of the Farm Fox Experiment for Understanding the Origins of Structural and Experiential Aspects of Facial Attractiveness." Quarterly Review of Biology Vol. 88, No. 3 (September 2013). http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/671486

The Quarterly Review of Biology, the premier review journal in biology, has presented insightful historical, philosophical, and technical treatments of important biological topics since 1926. The QRB publishes outstanding review articles of generous length that are guided by an expansive, inclusive, and often humanistic understanding of biology. Beyond the core biological sciences, the QRB is also an important review journal for scholars in related areas, including policy studies and the history and philosophy of science.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Tiny antennas let long light waves see in infrared

2013-09-25

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers have developed arrays of tiny nano-antennas that can enable sensing of molecules that resonate in the infrared (IR) spectrum. "The identification of molecules by sensing their unique absorption resonances is very important for environmental monitoring, industrial process control and military applications," said team leader Daniel Wasserman, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. Wasserman is also a part of the Micro and Nano Technology Laboratory at Illinois. The food and pharmaceutical ...

Improved smartphone microscope brings single-virus detection to remote locations

2013-09-25

Scientists are reporting an advance in smartphone-based imaging that could help physicians in far-flung and resource-limited locations monitor how well treatments for infections are working by detecting, for the first time, individual viruses. Their study on the light-weight device, which converts the phone into a powerful mini-microscope, appears in the journal ACS Nano. Aydogan Ozcan and colleagues note that conventional imaging techniques for detecting disease-causing bacteria and viruses rely on expensive microscopes with multiple lenses and other bulky optical components. ...

Making a common cosmetic and sunblock ingredient safer

2013-09-25

Using a particular type of titanium dioxide — a common ingredient in cosmetics, food products, toothpaste and sunscreen — could reduce the potential health risks associated with the widely used compound. The report on the substance, produced by the millions of tons every year for the global market, appears in the ACS journal Chemical Research in Toxicology. Francesco Turci and colleagues explain that titanium dioxide (TiO2) is generally considered a safe ingredient in commercially available skin products because it doesn't penetrate healthy skin. But there's a catch. ...

New approach to treating human brain cancer could lead to improved outcomes

2013-09-25

LA JOLLA, Calif., September 25 2013 – A new experimental approach to treating a type of brain cancer called medulloblastoma has been developed by researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham). The method targets cancer stem cells—the cells that are critical for maintaining tumor growth—and halts their ability to proliferate by inhibiting enzymes that are essential for tumor progression. The process destroys the ability of the cancer cells to grow and divide, paving the way for a new type of treatment for patients with this disease. The research ...

Genetic makeup and diet interact with the microbiome to impact health

2013-09-25

ROCHESTER, Minn . -- A Mayo Clinic researcher, along with his collaborators, has shown that an individual's genomic makeup and diet interact to determine which microbes exist and how they act in the host intestine. The study was modeled in germ-free knockout mice to mimic a genetic condition that affects 1 in 5 humans and increases the risk for digestive diseases. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Our data show that factors in the differences in a host's genetic makeup -- in this case genes that affect carbohydrates in the gut ...

Researchers develop model to study human response to infections that cause peptic ulcers

2013-09-25

Researchers at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech have developed a new large animal model to study how the immune system interacts with the stomach bacterium Helicobacter pylori, the leading cause of peptic ulcer disease. The discovery in the October edition of the journal Infection and Immunity may inform changes in the ways doctors treat patients. An estimated 4 million Americans have sores in the stomach lining known as peptic ulcers, according to the American Gastroenterological Association. Although the bacterium is found in more than half ...

Survey reveals improving salary and employment picture for chemists

2013-09-25

With the U.S. economy slowly trudging back from recession and uncertainties remaining about government sequestration, the employment and salary snapshot for chemists and chemical engineers in 2013 shows that salaries and the job market are improving. Results of the American Chemical Society's annual survey of its members are the topic of the cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, ACS' weekly newsmagazine. Sophie Rovner, assistant managing editor of C&EN, notes that the survey results are encouraging. Salaries and employment for chemists are on the rise. Full-time ...

Alpine archaeology reveals high life through the ages

2013-09-25

An international team of archaeologists led by experts from the University of York has uncovered evidence of human activity in the high slopes of the French Alps dating back over 8000 years. The 14-year study in the Parc National des Eìcrins in the southern Alps is one of the most detailed archaeological investigations carried out at high altitudes. It reveals a story of human occupation and activity in one of the world's most challenging environments from the Mesolithic to the Post-Medieval period. The work included the excavation of a series of stone animal enclosures ...

Discovery offers bio-solution to severe canola crop losses

2013-09-25

A genetic discovery by a University of Calgary-led international research team offers a solution to a long-standing "green seed problem" that causes millions of dollars annually in canola crop losses. Led by Marcus Samuel in the Faculty of Science, researchers from the U of C, the University of Toronto and the University of Bordeaux in France, have uncovered a plant gene regulatory network that could be genetically enhanced to prevent green seeds from occurring in mature canola. "The annual loss in North America alone is close to $150 million from this de-greening issue," ...

Dams provide resilience to Columbia River basin from climate change impacts

2013-09-25

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Dams have been vilified for detrimental effects to water quality and fish passage, but a new study suggests that these structures provide "ecological and engineering resilience" to climate change in the Columbia River basin. The study, which was published in the Canadian journal Atmosphere-Ocean, looked at the effects of climate warming on stream flow in the headwaters and downstream reaches of seven sub-basins of the Columbia River from 1950 to 2010. The researchers found that the peak of the annual snowmelt runoff has shifted to a few days earlier, ...

Identification of chemical constituents and blood-absorbed components of Shenqi Fuzheng extract based on UPLC-triple-TOF/MS technology

Emergency department physicians vary widely in their likelihood of hospitalizing a patient, even within the same facility

New clinical practice guideline on the process for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease or a related form of cognitive impairment or dementia

[Press-News.org] Fetching faces and friendly foxes
Selective breeding of foxes reveals why with humans, beauty rules

Fetching faces and friendly foxes

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: