Journal ArticleDOI
Adapted to flee famine: adding an evolutionary perspective on anorexia nervosa.
TLDR
Evidence is presented that AN's distinctive symptoms of restricting food, denial of starvation, and hyperactivity are likely to be evolved adaptive mechanisms that facilitated ancestral nomadic foragers leaving depleted environments; genetically susceptible individuals who lose too much weight may trigger these archaic adaptations.Abstract:
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is commonly attributed to psychological conflicts, attempts to be fashionably slender, neuroendocrine dysfunction, or some combination of these factors. Considerable research reveals these theories to be incomplete. Psychological and societal factors account for the decision to diet but not for the phenomenology of the disorder; theories of biological defects fail to explain neuroendocrine findings that suggest coordinated physiological mechanisms. This article presents evidence that AN’s distinctive symptoms of restricting food, denial of starvation, and hyperactivity are likely to be evolved adaptive mechanisms that facilitated ancestral nomadic foragers leaving depleted environments; genetically susceptible individuals who lose too much weight may trigger these archaic adaptations. This hypothesis accounts for the occurrence of AN-like syndromes in both humans and animals and is consistent with changes observed in the physiology, cognitions, and behavior of patients with AN.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Resolving the paradox of common, harmful, heritable mental disorders: which evolutionary genetic models work best?
TL;DR: Only polygenic mutation-selection balance seems consistent with the data on mental disorder prevalence rates, fitness costs, the likely rarity of susceptibility alleles, and the increased risks of mental disorders with brain trauma, inbreeding, and paternal age.
Journal ArticleDOI
The role of genetic variation in the causation of mental illness: an evolution-informed framework
TL;DR: On the basis of a summary of evidence, it is concluded that the CDCV hypothesis is untenable for most types of mental illness and an alternative evolution-informed framework is proposed, which suggests that gene–environment interactions and rare genetic variants constitute most of the genetic contribution to mental illness.
Journal ArticleDOI
Food insecurity as a driver of obesity in humans: The insurance hypothesis.
TL;DR: The insurance hypothesis as discussed by the authors is rooted in adaptive evolutionary thinking: the function of storing fat is to provide a buffer against shortfall in the food supply, and individuals should store more fat when they receive cues that access to food is uncertain.
Journal ArticleDOI
Molecular mechanisms underlying anorexia nervosa: focus on human gene association studies and systems controlling food intake.
TL;DR: The molecular basis of AN is reviewed with the focus on human genetic association studies, some genes that have an important role in regulating BMI whose possible relationship to AN has not been investigated are identified and the potential targets for pharmacological interventions are discussed.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour. I
TL;DR: A genetical mathematical model is described which allows for interactions between relatives on one another's fitness and a quantity is found which incorporates the maximizing property of Darwinian fitness, named “inclusive fitness”.
Journal ArticleDOI
Illusion and well-being: a social psychological perspective on mental health
TL;DR: Research suggesting that certain illusions may be adaptive for mental health and well-being is reviewed, examining evidence that a set of interrelated positive illusions—namely, unrealistically positive self-evaluations, exaggerated perceptions of control or mastery, and unrealistic optimism—can serve a wide variety of cognitive, affective, and social functions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Central nervous system control of food intake
TL;DR: A model is described that delineates the roles of individual hormonal and neuropeptide signalling pathways in the control of food intake and the means by which obesity can arise from inherited or acquired defects in their function.
Book
The Adapted mind : evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture
TL;DR: The Adapted Mind as discussed by the authors explores evolutionary psychology and its implications for a new view of culture, in which the traditional view of the mind as a general-purpose computer, tabula rasa or passive recipient of culture is being replaced by the view that the mind resembles an intricate network of functionally specialized computers, each of which imposes contentful structure on human mental organization and culture.
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