Studying the Roots of Individuality

An anonymous reader sends an article from Quanta Magazine about research into individuality — how behavior varies (or doesn't) when genetics and environment are as similar as possible. Scientists are taking various strains of fruit fly that are genetically almost identical (the result of extreme inbreeding) and raising them alone in environments that are exact copies of each other. Then they run the fruit flies through a series of decision-making tests to see how varied their responses are. Some fruit fly strains show a high degree of variance for tasks like navigating a maze. Other strains show almost no variance, suggesting there's a genetic component to individuality. The scientists also found that manipulating a certain set of neurons in the fruit flies's brains could increase the variation in choices they make. One theory suggests that evolution tends to select for genes that increase individuality by making it more difficult for predators to predict what the prey will do next.

Comments

randomness of cosmic rays

[turkeydance]

they dissect the DNA. Good Luck!

Study could also prove effects of Drugs on Humans

[ZippyTheChicken]

Many people believe that the use of drugs whether legal or illegal have no effect on your thoughts and decisions. This is a common belief among people who use marijuana but consider the millions of children who are on prescribed drugs like Ritalin. Anything that alters the way your mind functions will have an effect on your thought processes. Whether its a glass of wine, crack cocaine or a pharmaceutical. All you have to do is watch the disclosures on almost any pharmaceutical commercial and you will see warnings that are very dramatic but true. One product used to help people quit smoking is known to cause suicides. While it is interesting to watch studies on fruit flies .. we should all understand its application in our lives. Anything that alters your perception of reality whether prescribed or self applied will cause changes in your thought patterns. Most often those changes are negative in promotion of a health and well being but that is not to say that small numbers of people can't be helped by products like anti psychotics.. keep this in mind the next time you have a drink to combat the harsh world out there.. or pop a pill to substitute one addiction for another... or smoke some weed because you just don't want to give a ##### for a while.. because its changing you for the worse.

On Individuality

[causality]

What I observe with the majority of people: they are fully capable of being free-thinking individuals, but the main way they use this capability is to follow the crowd.

With herd animals that are prey creatures (i.e. cattle, sheep) this makes sense in terms of survival. There is safety in numbers. Stray from the herd, and you get targeted by ever-present predators.

With humans, who are at the top of the food chain and generally have no natural predators, it's just a form of cowardice. I'm not sure the DNA of fruit flies is going to provide a satisfying explanation here, at least not one that can be extrapolated to include people, fascinating though it may be.

Re:On Individuality

[slew]

I don't know if simply following the crowd is a form of cowardice, more often an expression of human make as social beings.

You may argue that humans are at the top of the food chain, but more often than not, it takes a village to assure long term survival and being social beings is one behavior designed to gain acceptance in a village.

On the other hand, we tend to detest what is too similar to ourselves, so in a sense humans are like skyrmion (bosons that sometimes exhibit fermion exclusion statistics). At least that's one way to look at it if you extrapolate things from the behavior of sub-atomic particles ;^)

Re:On Individuality

[Immerman]

You forget though that humans spent most of our evolutionary history as prey animals. It's only in the last few hundred millenia that we've begun to ascend to "dominant predator" status, and much of that ascension has been due directly to our much enhanced ability to cooperate and share knowledge within our tribal groups. We are very much a herd animal, and as such a predilection to herd-animal instincts is entirely reasonable.

Re:Study could also prove effects of Drugs on Huma

[Immerman]

Seriously? Perhaps you meant lingering *long term* effects? I mean the whole point of taking Ritalin, caffeine, marijuana, alcohol, or any other mind-altering substance is to alter your thoughts and decisions. Though of course your brain is a self-reinforcing system, and as such anything that alters it's patterns short-term will tend to cause lingering long-term effects, especially with chronic usage.

But what makes you so sure those changes will be for the worse? It's not like we're some sort of divine beings created in an initially perfect form - we're animals with extensive symbolic reasoning systems bolted on at the last minute. Our basic natures are as brutish and shortsighted as any other animal.