3/8/2023 0 Comments Cross fingers and toes memeIt was known that cold-adaptive traits of haenyeos disappeared, but we confirmed that cold-adaptive traits are still retained on the face and hands which could be interpreted by a mode switch to local adaptation from the overall adaptation to cold. An interesting finding was the possibility of positive cross-adaptation which might be supported by greater heat tolerance and cutaneous warm perception thresholds of older haenyeos who adapted to cold water. However, thermal perception in cold reflected aging effects rather than local cold acclimatization. Finger cold tests supported more superior local cold tolerance for older haenyeos than for older non-diving females. Our findings were that older haenyeos still retain local cold tolerance on the extremities despite their aging. As control group counterparts, older non-diving females and young non-diving females were compared with older haenyeos in the controlled experiments. Methodsįor the past several years, we revisited and explored older haenyeos in terms of environmental physiology, beginning with questionnaire and field studies and later advancing to thermal tolerance tests in conjunction with cutaneous thermal threshold tests in a climate chamber. For social and economic reasons, the number of haenyeos rapidly decreased to 4005 in 2015 from 14,143 in 1970 and the average age of haenyeos is about 75 years old at present. However, their overall cold-adaptive traits have disappeared since they began to wear wetsuits and research has waned since the 1980s. During the 1960s to the 1980s, haenyeos received attention from environmental physiologists due to their unique ability to endure cold water while wearing only a thin cotton bathing suit. This article was originally published with the title "Why do we want to bite cute things, like adorable newborn babies?" in SA Mind 25, 6, 74 (November 2014)ĭoi:10.We have been studying the thermoregulatory responses of Korean breath-hold women divers, called haenyeo, in terms of aging and cold adaptation. It may be one more example of friendly, pseudo-biting-and a sign of good intentions. Against this background, the impulse to gobble up an adorable baby does not seem so bizarre. Also, of course all mammals begin life as enthusiastic social nibblers, extracting milk from their mother's mammary glands by chomping down with their toothless jaws. Behaviors that resemble biting-mouthing, nuzzling and gentle nips-seem to be a normal part of the friendly social repertoires of many mammals. So biting is not only for feeding or aggression. The researchers think the monkeys may be testing their social bonds, sending the message, “I'm so trustworthy, you can stick your finger in my mouth.” Primatologist Susan Perry in the anthropology department at the University of California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues have seen capuchin monkeys bite one another in careful, seemingly ritualistic ways, clamping down on fingers hard enough to trap them but apparently causing no pain. When a puppy gently bites your hand, is he honing his motor skills? Rehearsing for real-life combat? Engaging in a friendly game?Īll those explanations are possibilities, but what is interesting here is that play-biting generally happens between trusted allies. The reasons for this behavior are not entirely clear. Yet pseudo-biting, if you will, is prevalent, especially in the form of the teasing nips that mammals give one another during rough-and-tumble play. Some Old World monkeys, for instance, will line up for the chance to handle another monkey's new baby, and nuzzling-rubbing one's nose and mouth against the baby-is one of the most common forms of handling. A kind of friendly “social biting” may be part of our evolutionary heritage.Ĭreatures throughout the primate world are often drawn to their species' offspring. Yet we may have other reasons to associate babies and biting. This research suggests that, to some degree, our brains respond in a parallel way when perceiving cuteness and seeking food, and perhaps our psychological experience of wanting to bite arises from that physiological overlap. A similar neural effect was reported in an earlier study where women viewed images of babies. The odors activated reward-related areas of the brain, the same regions that trigger a pleasurable rush of dopamine when we get our hands on a desirable bit of food. In a recent study, researchers performed functional magnetic resonance imaging scans on women who unwittingly sniffed newborn infants. The urge to nibble cute creatures might be a case of getting one's wires crossed. Gwen Dewar, biological anthropologist and founder of the Web site Parenting Science, responds:
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