7. Week. Reading Blog

What fMRI Can Tell Us About the Thoughts and Minds of Dogs

  

Autor, A.A Joseph Stromberg — Biology,Mammals,Psychology (November 1, 2013)

Name of the Article: What fMRI Can Tell Us About the Thoughts and Minds of Dogs

Name of Magazine: Smithsonian (http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/11/what-fmri-can-tell-us-about-the-thoughts-and-minds-of-dogs/)

 

Pilar and Kathy are friends, are meeting in the park as every week. But now, they are walking their dogs.
Kathy	Hello Pilar, How are you? Is beautiful your dog!!! What’s its name?
Pilar	Hi Kathy, fine! And you? Its name is Kevin, Is beautiful your dog too, What’s its name?
Kathy	Its name is Ralphi, I love him so much because he knows all my life and he feels the same as I.
Pilar	Really! Kevin is the same as Ralphi, they understand of all animal life and human life too. Their brain is a mysterious.
Kathy	Is true! But now is less mysterious, because neuroscientist Gregory Berns who studied the human mind using fMRI technology and who sought to find correlations between people’s internal mental patterns and their real-world behaviors, decisions and preferences, now is studying about the thoughts and minds of dogs.
Pilar	Really? I cant believe!
Kathy	You must to believe! You can see the article in Smithsonian published on November 1, 2013.
Pilar	It’s wonderful!. Do you can talk more about it?  What does “fMRI” means?
Kathy	Yes, I do. fMRI means Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI). Berns loves the animals and when his dog died, named Newton, he thought about study dogs. He had published the book “How Dogs Love Us” last week and he said: “It got me  wondering about how dogs view their relationship with us—if he had loved me the same way I had loved him.” This was a formidable challenge for Berns because for looking inside the canine brain and getting an accurate fMRI reading means that the subject has to stay almost perfectly still.
Pilar	Wuau! How was possible to do it? Did they use anesthesia for the dog stays still?  I don't like the experiments with animals! Do you believe that this is abuse?
Kathy	Yes, I do. In this case they don’t use anesthesia because this would ruin the experiments, producing an image of an unconscious or anxious dog instead of a comfortable, alert one, besides, Berns loves the animals, he thinks that they have the same rights as us.
Pilar	Then, How did he do?
Kathy	To solve the problem, Berns recruited dogs from the local community, stanting with a dog he adopted after Newton died and he gradually trained them to follow a series of steps into a table, rest their head on a pad inside the fMRI's inner tunnel and sit still for 30 seconds, so that scientist can scan his brain, besides, removing all noise that could disturb the dogs. You can see this picture in my smartphone. They have successfully trained about a dozen dogs to voluntarily for to be studied.
Pilar	And What did they find?
Kathy	Now the studies are preliminary but they're finding that its activity mirrors that of the human brain to a much greater than expected. They found unexpected findings, experimenting with dogs sited in the scanner and exposed to smells of humans (from either their owners or strangers) and other dogs. Berns says "We wanted to understand how dogs recognize other people and dogs in their households,” they saw increased activity in the caudate, but only as result of one of the scents. “In this case, the reward system only seems to activate in response to the smell of a familiar human, which is pretty amazing,” he says. For Berns these results, in some ways, say that the mental processes of dogs, don't could to be as different from those of humans, because the mental activity represents emotion, and even constitute love. Berns believes that the dogs are experiencing emotions something like we do.
Pilar	What does it mean? Do you say that the human brain and canine brain aren't radically different as we might have imagined?
Kathy	Yes, I do. Berns admits that the idea is controversial.  Besides, because dog brains are much smaller, however some of the core areas around the brainstem, which the caudate nucleus, look very much like those in humans, besides Berns says that the Dogs not have the hardware necessary for complex thoughts and higher-level reasoning, but they do have the relevant structures for basic emotions. This could to be for an evolution different, he says.
Pilar	I believe that Berns have a lot of criticisms, because some say that the dogs are based on the desire for food.
Kathy	Is true!, Berns have a lot of criticisms, but he hopes to respond with future fMRI work. Besides he has gone beyond, because he believes that if the animals are capable of have emotions as the humans, they should not be treated as objects, or property, instead be give some of the rights, namely a respect for their preference and well-being and consequently the abolition of thing like puppy mills and dog racing.
Pilar	Surprising! This is really provocative for many
Kathy	This is a long way to go, both in terms of scientific evidence and policy changes. Berns published this month in New York Times a provocative headline "Dogs Are People, Too".
Pilar	Really provocative. Do you talk me about it?
Kathy	I would like, but it’s late for me.
Pilar	Ok, but we can meet the next week and continue talking about this new article.
Kathy	Ok, see you next week.
Pilar	Good bye

6. Week. Reading Book

CHAPTER VIII

The Robin Who Showed The Way 

1.   Mary looked at the key over and over a long time, and thought about it if it was the key to the closed garden for ten years, and she could see was inside, and perhaps she could play alone and nobody would ever know where she was.

2.   She was not a child who had been trained to ask permission or consult her elders.

3.   Already Mary felt less “contrary”, though she did not know why.

4.   Martha talked to Mary about your family and a lot of histories that she had happened during your free day in your cottage and Mary liked to listen about it.

5.  Martha's mother had bought a skipping-rope for tuppence to Mary. She did not understand how a cottage full of fourteen hungry people could give any one a present.

6.  Martha teached Mary about to play with the skipping-rope because Mary had never seen one.

7. The skipping-rope was a wonderful thing that Mary had ever seen and he was thing more interesting that she had ever seen since she was born. 

8.  She skipped and skipped and counted round the fountain garden and she found Ben  who was working in the garden with company of robin.

9.  She wanted him to see her skip.  They have a friendly conversation about the Mary’s toy.

10. Mary skipped round all the gardens and round the orchard and robin followed her all time and She found a door and she used the key and she could open the door. She was standing inside the secret garden.

6. Week. Reading Blog

Early Humans—Not Climate Change—Decimated

Africa’s Large Carnivores

Africa once harbored a far greater variety of large carnivores than it does today. Competition with early humans for access to prey may have brought about their decline

Autor, A.A Lars Werdelin (October 16, 2013)

Name of the Article: Early Humans— Not Climate Change — Decimated Africa’s Large Carnivores  

Name of Magazine: Scientific American (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=early-humans-not-climate-change-decimated-africas-large-carnivores)

Original version
Sunrise on the Serengeti, and life on the savanna is in full swing. Zebras and wildebeests graze the dewy grass; elephants and giraffes munch on acacia leaves; and lions and hyenas survey the scene, looking for their next meal. To visit this place is, in some ways, to see the world as it looked to our ancestors millions of years ago, long before humans began to wreak havoc on the planet—or so the conventional wisdom goes. Indeed, much of eastern Africa is often thought of as a pristine ecosystem, largely unchanged by our kind in the more than two million years since our genus, Homo, arose.   But new research paints a rather different picture of this supposedly unaltered place. In my studies of the fossil record of African carnivores, I have found that lions, hyenas and other large-bodied carnivores that roam eastern Africa today represent only a small fraction of the diversity this group once had. Intriguingly, the decline of these carnivores began around the same time that early Homo started eating more meat, thus entering into competition with the carnivores. The timing of events hints that early humans are to blame for the extinction of these beasts—starting more than two million years ago, long before Homo sapiens came on the scene.
New words - Essay
Serengeti: Region of Africa located in north Tanzania. The article is talking about this place in the developed of the scientific study.	Now, to see this place with different animals as zebras, wildebeests, elephants, giraffes, lions, hyenas etc. and visit this place is as to see this world as millions of years ago. But this was much more…
Wildebeests: A big African Animal with horns and a long tail that lives in grasslands	These are some animals that live in Serengeti, but is only one of the species among miles that existed, but the decline in other diversity groups began around that early Homo started eating more meat.
Dewy: Are crops of water that form on ground during the night.	This is the aliment of the animals as Wildebeests, zebras and others that live in Serengeti.
Survey: Watch with attention, contemplate.	This is way as the animals as lion, hyenas survey their next meal. It is as contemplate how the wildebeests, zebras eat.
Ancestors: a person who lived a long time ago and that is related with the people today
Wreak havoc: Consequence to do destruction and often uncontrolled way	There were other diversity of animals long before humans began to wreak havoc on the planet.
Wisdom: A ability to use knowledge and experience in to make good decisions	The article uses this word for explain that the humans have destroyed the planet and this theory is said by popular wisdom.
Indeed: Often used to emphasize. Certainly
Pristine ecosystem: Is an ecosystem that Remaining in a pure state; uncorrupted by civilization	Eastern Africa is considerate a pristine ecosystem in the more than two million years since our genus, Homo, arose
Roam: to move about travel.	The carnivores that roam eastern Africa today is  only one of the species among many that existed.
Intriguingly: Mysterious, curious, very interesting
To blame: Is the responsibility of bad fact or is responsible for something bad happening	The early humans are to blame for the extinction of these animal species

5. Week. Reading Book

CHAPTER VII

The Key Of The Garden

1. One day, when Mary opened her eyes, she looked surprised at the moor. The rainstorms had ended and the sky was softly blue and Marta said to Mary “It’s a long way off yet, but the springtime is coming”.

2. Marta speaks about how is the spring in Yorkshire. In it there are blossoms and hundreds of butterflies fluttering, bees humming, skylarks singing and a lot of others animals as rabbits, sheep, ponies and foxes. Martha tells Mary that she will want to get out at sunrise and live out on it all day like Dickon does.

3. Mary wants to know all the places that Martha has spoken and she also wants to know Dickon because she has never seen him.

4. Mary felt lonelier than ever when Marta went.

5. Mary went out into the garden as quickly as possible and she ran round and round the fountain flower garden ten times and she counted the times carefully and she felt better.

6. Mary walked away slowly thinking she had begun to like the garden, robin, Dickon, Martha's mother and Martha as well, and she that seemed a good many people to like.

7. Mary heard a chirp; she knew that robin had followed her. Mary said him "You do remember me!!"

8. Robin was so pretty and so grand that it was really as if he were showing her how important and like a human person a robin could be. Mary was happy.

9. At moment, Mary saw something almost buried in the newly turned soil, it was an old key which looked as if it had been buried a long time.

10. Mary thought that perhaps it has been buried for ten years and it is the key to the garden!

5. Week. Reading Blog

Chimpanzees Intentionally Warn Their Friends About Danger

 

Autor, A.A Joseph Stromberg  (October 17, 2013)

Name of the Article: Chimpanzees Intentionally Warn Their Friends About Danger

Name of Magazine: Smithsonianmag.com (http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/10/chimpanzees-intentionally-warn-their-friends-about-danger/)

Subject:     Surprising Science

Date: Octuber 17, 2013

Main Ideas	Details
Chimps make different warning calls to other chimps, through sounds and they keep the alarm until their friends are safe.   Chimps are able of all sorts of human-like behaviors that go far beyond tool use.    This discovery tells us something about the evolution of human language.	-          The study shows that, in their natural environment, chimps have a way more similar to language than previously thought.    -          This study was done in a community of 73 chimps that lives in Uganda’s Budongo Forest Reserve, and led by Anne Marijke Schel of the University of York.   -          Typically, when the chimps saw danger, they used one of two different vocalizations o   ‘huus’ (softer calls, with less alarm). o   ‘waas’ (louder, more alarmed calls).    -          The researchers found that the startled chimps were much more likely to make the "wass" rather than "huus" when other chimps were around.    -          The researchers found that were more likely to trigger alarms when were closer relationships among them.     -          "It really seemed the chimpanzees directed their alarm calls at specific individuals.” said the researchers.   -          They continuing warning until they’d successfully warned about danger other chimps so they fled.
Summary: The Noises of Chimps are much more than the instinctive expression of fear; these are security warning among them. The researchers have discovered that vocalizations of chimps are employed in different circumstances. This discovery tells us something about the evolution of human language. Until now, it was thought that chimps were making vocalizations based on engrained instinct, but this discovery of intentional warning in chimps seems to upend this idea.