MTS is the department’s Mind, Technology, and Society speaker series. It is hosted by a different faculty member each semester. Founded by a generous gift from Professors Robert Glushko and Pamela Samuelson, MTS brings researchers and industry professionals from across the globe to present a variety of interdisciplinary work in cognitive science. See our UCMerced CogSci youtube channel for videos of past MTS talks!
CIS graduate students, faculty, and staff, and all who are interested are invited! Members of other departments at UC Merced as well as the general public are encouraged to attend. (Note: current CIS Ph.D. students are required to attend MTS each semester in residence, to fulfill their COGS 250 course requirement).
Dr. Hagen's talk "The Pleistocene Transition to Meat Eating and the Evolution of “Recreational” Drug Use" will be 3-4:30pm in COB 116.
Abstract: Psychoactive drugs are widely used, it is thought, because they hijack reward-related neural circuitry. But most globally popular drugs, such as tobacco, coffee, cannabis, and cocaine, are highly toxic plant defensive chemicals that activate evolved toxin defense mechanisms, which has been termed the paradox of drug reward. We propose that the paradox is resolved as follows: The human transition to a more carnivorous dietary niche 2.6 mya likely increased zoonotic pathogen pressure. Evidence for increased pathogen pressure includes increased zoonotic infections in modern hunter-gatherers and bushmeat hunters, exceptionally low stomach pH, and divergence in immune-related genes relative to other apes. Increased zoonotic pathogen pressure then selected for intensification of the plant-based self-medication strategies already in place in other primates. In support, there is evidence of medicinal plant use by hominins in the middle Paleolithic, and all cultures today add spices to food, regularly consume psychoactive plant substances that are harmful to parasites, and have sophisticated plant-based medical systems administered by shamans and other healers. Moreover, analyses of large national and cross-national datasets reveals how evolved toxin defense mechanisms profoundly shape age and sex patterns of drug use. Comparative evidence from primates and other species, as well as from hunter-gatherers, suggests that a “taste” for drugs might have evolved as a form of self-medication against parasites.
For more information or to sign up for email announcements, please contact the talk series organizer: cis-mts-lead@lists.ucmerced.edu.
