Pleasure

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso Troisi
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Sexual Pleasure ◽  
Female Orgasm ◽  
Sexual Stimuli ◽  
Behavioral Choices ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
Alternative Hypotheses ◽  
Hedonic Capacity ◽  
Neurobiological Research ◽  
Female Responses

Contemporary neurobiological research has greatly improved our understanding of brain mechanisms that regulate hedonic response and the environmental stimuli that trigger physical and mental pleasure. However, to explain what purpose pleasure serves, we need to look at the problem from the perspective of evolutionary biology. Focusing on a specific type of pleasure, sexual pleasure, this chapter introduces several evolutionary studies that show how the variation in pleasurable experiences becomes understandable when hedonic capacity is viewed as an inner navigator that evolved to guide individuals toward the most adaptive behavioral choices. As a case in point, the alternative hypotheses that have been advanced to explain the evolution of female orgasm (the adaptive versus the byproduct hypothesis) are discussed. The findings of recent studies exploring the complexity of human sexual response and the striking sex differences that distinguish male and female responses to sexual stimuli are also presented.

scholarly journals Evolution in the cold

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Antarctic Fish ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Polar Regions ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
Adaptive Radiations ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

Theodosius Dobzhansky once remarked that nothing in biology makes sense other than in the light of evolution, thereby emphasising the central role of evolutionary studies in providing the theoretical context for all of biology. It is perhaps surprising then that evolutionary biology has played such a small role to date in Antarctic science. This is particularly so when it is recognised that the polar regions provide us with an unrivalled laboratory within which to undertake evolutionary studies. The Antarctic exhibits one of the classic examples of a resistance adaptation (antifreeze peptides and glycopeptides, first described from Antarctic fish), and provides textbook examples of adaptive radiations (for example amphipod crustaceans and notothenioid fish). The land is still largely in the grip of major glaciation, and the once rich terrestrial floras and faunas of Cenozoic Gondwana are now highly depauperate and confined to relatively small patches of habitat, often extremely isolated from other such patches. Unlike the Arctic, where organisms are returning to newly deglaciated land from refugia on the continental landmasses to the south, recolonization of Antarctica has had to take place by the dispersal of propagules over vast distances. Antarctica thus offers an insight into the evolutionary responses of terrestrial floras and faunas to extreme climatic change unrivalled in the world. The sea forms a strong contrast to the land in that here the impact of climate appears to have been less severe, at least in as much as few elements of the fauna show convincing signs of having been completely eradicated.

Developmental biology and human evolution

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. e2
Author(s):  
Jeffrey H. Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Population Genetics ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Molecular Change ◽  
Human Fossil ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Evolutionary Synthesis ◽  
Organismal Development ◽  
Taxic Diversity

The Evolutionary or Modern Evolutionary Synthesis (here identified as the Synthesis) has been portrayed as providing the foundation for uniting a supposed disarray of biological disciplines through the lens of Darwinism fused with population genetics. Rarely acknowledged is that the Synthesis’s success was also largely due to its architects’ effectiveness in submerging British and German attempts at a synthesis by uniting the biological sciences through shared evolutionary concerns. Dobzhansky and Mayr imposed their bias toward population genetics, population (as supposedly opposed to typological) thinking, and Morgan’s conception of specific genes for specific features (here abbreviated as genes for) on human evolutionary studies. Dobzhansky declared that culture buffered humans from the whims of selection. Mayr argued that as variable as humans are now, their extinct relatives were even more variable; thus the human fossil did not present taxic diversity and all known fossils could be assembled into a gradually changing lineage of time-successive species. When Washburn centralized these biases in the new physical anthropology the fate of paleoanthropology as a non-contributor to evolutionary theory was sealed. Molecular anthropology followed suit in embracing Zuckerkandl and Pauling’s assumption that molecular change was gradual and perhaps more importantly continual. Lost in translation was and still is an appreciation of organismal development. Here I will summarize the history of these ideas and their alternatives in order to demonstrate assumptions that still need to be addressed before human evolutionary studies can more fully participate in what is a paradigm shift-in-the-making in evolutionary biology.

scholarly journals What have humans done for evolutionary biology? Contributions from genes to populations

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1866) ◽  
pp. 20171164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Briga ◽  
Robert M. Griffin ◽  
Vérane Berger ◽  
Jenni E. Pettay ◽  
Virpi Lummaa
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Human Study ◽  
Human Studies ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
Biological Relevance ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Study Designs

Many fundamental concepts in evolutionary biology were discovered using non-human study systems. Humans are poorly suited to key study designs used to advance this field, and are subject to cultural, technological, and medical influences often considered to restrict the pertinence of human studies to other species and general contexts. Whether studies using current and recent human populations provide insights that have broader biological relevance in evolutionary biology is, therefore, frequently questioned. We first surveyed researchers in evolutionary biology and related fields on their opinions regarding whether studies on contemporary humans can advance evolutionary biology. Almost all 442 participants agreed that humans still evolve, but fewer agreed that this occurs through natural selection. Most agreed that human studies made valuable contributions to evolutionary biology, although those less exposed to human studies expressed more negative views. With a series of examples, we discuss strengths and limitations of evolutionary studies on contemporary humans. These show that human studies provide fundamental insights into evolutionary processes, improve understanding of the biology of many other species, and will make valuable contributions to evolutionary biology in the future.

scholarly journals Progress without exclusion in the search for an evolutionary basis of music

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Bowling ◽  
Marisa Hoeschele ◽  
Jacob C. Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Alternative Hypotheses ◽  
Strong Contender

Abstract Mehr et al.'s hypothesis that the origins of music lie in credible signaling emerges here as a strong contender to explain early adaptive functions of music. Its integration with evolutionary biology and its specificity mark important contributions. However, much of the paper is dedicated to the exclusion of popular alternative hypotheses, which we argue is unjustified and premature.

Widespread Biases in Ecological and Evolutionary Studies

BioScience ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (8) ◽  
pp. 631-640 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary W Culumber ◽  
Jaime M Anaya-Rojas ◽  
William W Booker ◽  
Alexandra P Hooks ◽  
Elizabeth C Lange ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
The State ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
Geographic Regions ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
Tropical Systems

Abstract There has been widespread discussion of biases in the sciences. The extent of most forms of bias has scarcely been confronted with rigorous data. In the present article, we evaluated the potential for geographic, taxonomic, and citation biases in publications between temperate and tropical systems for nine broad topics in ecology and evolutionary biology. Across 1,800 papers sampled from 60,000 peer-reviewed, empirical studies, we found consistent patterns of bias in the form of increased numbers of studies in temperate systems. Tropical studies were nearly absent from some topics. Furthermore, there were strong taxonomic biases across topics and geographic regions, as well as evidence for citation biases in many topics. Our results indicate a strong geographic imbalance in publishing patterns and among different taxonomic groups across a wide range of topics. The task ahead is to address what these biases mean and how they influence the state of our knowledge in ecology and evolution.

scholarly journals Different perspectives on non-genetic inheritance illustrate the versatile utility of the Price equation in evolutionary biology

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1797) ◽  
pp. 20190366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heikki Helanterä ◽  
Tobias Uller
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
The Other ◽  
Price Equation ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Genetic Inheritance ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
Research Programmes ◽  
The One

The diversity of genetic and non-genetic processes that make offspring resemble their parents are increasingly well understood. In addition to genetic inheritance, parent–offspring similarity is affected by epigenetic, behavioural and cultural mechanisms that collectively can be referred to as non-genetic inheritance. Given the generality of the Price equation as a description of evolutionary change, is it not surprising that the Price equation has been adopted to model the evolutionary implications of non-genetic inheritance. In this paper, we briefly introduce the heredity perspectives on which those models rely, discuss the extent to which these perspectives make different assumptions and place different emphases on the roles of heredity and development in evolution, and the types of empirical research programmes they motivate. The existence of multiple perspectives and explanatory aims highlight, on the one hand, the versatility of the Price equation and, on the other hand, the importance of understanding how heredity and development can be conceptualized in evolutionary studies. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Fifty years of the Price equation’.

Coming to the fore: the audibility of women's sexual pleasure in popular music and the sexual revolution

Popular Music ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-128
Author(s):  
Jon Stratton
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Sexual Behaviour ◽  
Sexual Revolution ◽  
Sexual Pleasure ◽  
Female Orgasm ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Alfred Kinsey

AbstractThis paper examines the genre of tracks centred around the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s which include aural representations of female sexual pleasure. The two most important tracks, and the ones on which this paper focuses, are Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg ‘Je t'aime … moi non plus’ and Donna Summer ‘Love To Love You Baby’. The paper argues that this new audibility of female sexual pleasure related to the transformation in the understanding of female orgasm associated with Alfred Kinsey and with William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the American sexologists who radically changed Western understandings of sexual behaviour in the 1950s and 1960s. More broadly, the paper argues for a link between the so-called sexual revolution of the late 1960s and 1970s and the popularity of tracks in which sounds identified as female sexual pleasure were upfront in the musical mix.

scholarly journals Clinical Holistic Medicine: Teaching Orgasm for Females with Chronic Anorgasmia using the Betty Dodson Method

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 883-895 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pia Struck ◽  
Søren Ventegodt
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy ◽  
Sexual Pleasure ◽  
Holistic Medicine ◽  
Female Orgasm ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Therapeutic Value ◽  
Negative Side Effects ◽  
Negative Feelings ◽  
Fertile Women

The objective of this study was to test the Betty Dodson method of breaking the female orgasm barrier in chronic anorgasmic women. The aim was sexual and existential healing (salutogenesis) through direct confrontation and integration of both the repressed shame, guilt, and other negative feelings associated with body, genitals, and sexuality, and the repressed sexual pleasure and desire. We conducted a retrospective analysis of clinic data from holistic sexological manual therapeutic intervention, an intensive subtype of clinical holistic medicine (CHM). The patients received 3 × 5 h of group therapy, integrating short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) and complementary medicine (CAM bodywork, manual sexology similar to the “sexological examination”). The therapy used the advanced tools of reparenting, genital acceptance, acceptance through touch, and direct sexual clitoral stimulation. A clitoral vibrator was used. Participants were 500 female patients between 18 and 88 years of age (mean of 35 years) with chronic anorgasmia (for 12 years on average) who were participating in the “orgasm course for anorgasmic women”; 25% of the patients had never experienced an orgasm. Our results show that 465 patients (93%) had an orgasm during therapy, witnessed by the therapist, and 35 patients (7%) did not. Postmenopausal women were as able to achieve orgasm as fertile women, as were women who never had an orgasm. No patients had detectable negative side effects or adverse effects. NNT: 1.04 < NNT < 1.12, NNH > 500. Therapeutic value: TV = NNH/NNT > 446. Our conclusions are that holistic sexological manual therapy may be rational, safe, ethical, and efficient.

scholarly journals Evolutionary biology studies on the Iris pumila clonal plant: Advantages of a good model system, main findings and directions for further research

2012 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Tarasjev ◽  
S. Avramov ◽  
Danijela Miljkovic
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Clonal Plant ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Model System ◽  
Biological Organization ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
Iris Pumila ◽  
Published Research ◽  
Different Levels

Evolutionary studies on the dwarf bearded iris, Iris pumila L., a perennial clonal monocot with hermaphroditic enthomophylous flowers, have been conducted during the last three decades on plants and populations from the Deliblato Sands in Serbia. In this review we discuss the main advantages of this model system that have enabled various studies of several important genetic, ecological, and evolutionary issues at different levels of biological organization (molecular, physiological, anatomical, morphological and population). Based on published research and its resonance in international scientific literature, we present the main findings obtained from these studies, and discuss possible directions for further research.

scholarly journals The subjective nature of Linnaean categories and its impact in evolutionary biology and biodiversity studies

2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 131-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Laurin
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Evolutionary Models ◽  
Biodiversity Assessment ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Sampling Schemes ◽  
Higher Taxa ◽  
Evolutionary Studies ◽  
Continued Use ◽  
Phylogenetic Nomenclature

Absolute (Linnaean) ranks are essential to rank-based nomenclature (RN), which has been used by the vast majority of systematists for the last 150 years. They are widely recognized as being subjective among taxonomists, but not necessarily in other fields. For this reason, phylogenetic nomenclature (PN) and other alternative nomenclatural systems have been developed. However, reluctance to accept alternative nomenclatural systems and continued use of higher taxa of a given Linnaean category in comparative analyses presumably reflect a lack of appreciation of the deleterious effects of the subjective nature of Linnaean categories in other biological fields, such as conservation and evolutionary biology. To make that point clearer, evolutionary models under which such categories would be natural are presented and are shown to be highly unrealistic and to lack empirical support. Under all realistic evolutionary models, ranking of taxa into Linnaean categories is highly subjective. Solutions that could make taxonomic ranks objective are surveyed. A review of the literature illustrates two problems created by the use of Linnaean categories in comparative or evolutionary studies, namely suboptimal taxonomic sampling schemes in studies of character evolution, and unreliable biodiversity assessment drawn on the basis of counting higher taxa (taxon surrogacy).

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