Tinbergean Approach to Clinical Medicine

Among the most enduring and influential contributions of Nobel Laureate Nikolaas Tinbergen was the introduction of a four-part framework for understanding biological causation. Beyond traditional proximate-mechanistic explanations, Tinbergen asserted, a consideration of both phylogenetic and functional-adaptive perspectives was essential. The application of a framework derived from this Tinbergean structure to human medicine offers a novel approach to the development of theories of causation for high-impact somatic and bio-behavioral disorders. This perspective offers physicians and physicians-in-training an expanded understanding of the nature and origin of human vulnerability to disease. The phylogenetic perspective expands awareness of non-human animals who spontaneously develop the disorder and the functional-adaptive perspective considers what components of vulnerability to disease might have adaptive benefit. Both facilitate the development of novel testable hypotheses.

O paradigma científico no discurso da mídia brasileira sobre Zika e microcefalia

Introduction: In 2015 Brazil was surprised by an increase in the incidence of microcephaly, related by the Ministry of Health to Zika virus infection during pregnancy. This theme, which was notorious for public health, reached wide popular repercussion through the media. Objectives: To describe the presence of the scientific paradigm in the discourse of health professionals, researchers or journalists who inform the lay public about biological causation. Methodology: All the news made available on the digital platform of the Folha de São Paulo newspaper, containing the key term "Zika and microcephalia" and published between November 11, 2015 and March 4, 2016, was performed. Scientific elucidation on the subject. The news items were classified as to the presence of certainty or uncertainty about the relationship between Zika and microcephaly in their content and the central idea in the subject titles. Results: Of the 387 reports analyzed, 51.4% related Zika as a causal factor of microcephaly, while 32.8% considered the presence of uncertainty in the relationship. It was verified that the newspaper privileged subjects related to the repercussions due to the diseases, being predominant the report of control measures. Considering the origin of the news, it was significant the use of official sources, presented in 82% of the news. Conclusion: The scientific paradigm was disregarded, ignoring the uncertainty principle and the scientific debate. The limitations of both journalists and health managers were also demonstrated in the elaboration of an effective communication with the public in emergency situations.

Learning to cooperate: The evolution of social rewards in repeated interactions

Understanding the behavioral and psychological mechanisms underlying social behaviors is one of the major goals of social evolutionary theory. In particular, a persistent question about animal cooperation is to what extent it is supported by other-regarding preferences. In many situations, animals adjust their behaviors through learning by responding to the rewards they experience as a consequence of their actions. Therefore, we may ask whether learning in social situations can be driven by evolved prosocial rewards. Here we develop a mathematical model in order to ask whether the mere act of cooperating with a social partner will evolve to be inherently rewarding. Individuals interact repeatedly in pairs and adjust their behaviors through reinforcement learning. We assume that individuals associate to each game outcome an internal reward value. These perceived rewards are genetically evolving traits. We find that conditionally cooperative rewards that value mutual cooperation positively but the sucker's outcome negatively tend to be evolutionarily stable. Purely other-regarding rewards can evolve only under special parameter combinations. On the other hand, selfish rewards that always learn pure defection are also evolutionarily successful. These findings are consistent with empirical observations showing that humans tend to show conditionally cooperative behavior, and also exhibit diversity of preferences. Our model also demonstrates the need to further integrate multiple levels of biological causation of behavior.

Examining the Genetic Contribution to ADHD

The scientific status of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is highly controversial. Much of the controversy hinges on whether ADHD is a biological disorder. Advocates of biological causation often argue that it has a genetic basis. Etiology of ADHD has implications for treatment options, which is also a source of controversy. Given the ongoing interest in establishing the genetic basis of ADHD, this article critically examines the claims of a genetic basis to ADHD. We conclude that although genes may have a role to play in the expression of ADHD behaviors, available evidence suggests that the effect size of a genetic contribution is likely to be small.