PSYCOLOQUY CALL FOR BOOK REVIEWERS
Below is the Abstract of the Precis of "Brain Size, Intelligence
and Myopia" by Miles David Storfer (970 lines). This monograph has
been selected for multiple review in Psycoloquy.
THE FULL TEXT OF THE PRECIS IS AT:
http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/psyc-bin/newpsy?11.083
THE FULL TEXT OF THE MONOGRAPH FOR REVIEW IS DOWNLOADABLE FROM:
http://www.gbhap-us.com/IJN (US)
http://www.gbhap.com/IJN (elsewhere)
If you wish to submit a formal review of this monograph, please
write to psyc at pucc.princeton.edu indicating what expertise you
would bring to bear on reviewing the book. (If you have never
reviewed for PSYCOLOQUY or Behavioral & Brain Sciences before, it
would be helpful if you could also append a copy of your CV to your
inquiry.) Reviews can also be submitted without invitation, but all
reviews will be refereed. The author will reply to all accepted
reviews.
FULL PSYCOLOQUY BOOK REVIEW INSTRUCTIONS AT:
http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/psyc.htmlhttp://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/psycoloquy/
Please note that Psycoloquy reviews are of the full monograph, not
the Precis. Review length should be about 200 lines [c. 1800
words], with a short abstract (about 50 words), an indexable title,
and reviewer's full name and institutional address, email and Home
Page URL. All references that are electronically accessible should
also have URLs.
AUTHOR'S RATIONALE FOR SOLICITING MULTIPLE BOOK REVIEW
Reviews of Storfer (1999), "Brain Size, Intelligence and
Myopia," are invited on questions such as the following:
(1) To what extent is the human brain growing intergenerationally,
and why does the growth seem so specific to areas most heavily
stressed by recent ancestral experience? (2) How does this brain
growth relate to the gradual, substantial long-term rise in IQ
scores? (3) How can the prevalence of myopia have risen so rapidly,
yet continued to generate epidemiological data consistent with
myopia as primarily an inherited condition? (4) Given the close
correspondence between myopia and high IQ, and findings that relate
neocortical size and IQ, does this imply a causal link between the
secular increase in brain size and the upsurge in myopia? (5) Do
recent post-mortem findings of a left-right asymmetry in a
speech-analysis area of the neocortex of primates heavily exposed
to (gestural + vocal) human speech, in contrast to the
near-symmetry reported in much earlier studies, suggest a rapid,
adaptive (intergenerational) biological response?
The full text can be viewed and downloaded at no cost through the
publisher's (Gordon and Breach) website:
In the US: http://www.gbhap.com/IJN
{note: the letters IJN must be capitalized}.
Outside the US: http://www.gbhap-us.com/IJN may be required.
psycoloquy.00.11.083.brain-intelligence.1.storfer Sun Jun 18 2000
ISSN 1055-0143 (54 paragraphs, 17 references, 6 notes, 884 lines)
PSYCOLOQUY is sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA)
Copyright 2000 Miles David Storfer
BRAIN SIZE, INTELLIGENCE AND MYOPIA
[International Journal of Neuroscience (1999), 98(3-4): 153-276]
Precis of Storfer on Brain-Intelligence
Miles David Storfer
The Foundation for Brain Research
46 Brittany A Drive
Delray Beach FL 33446
USA
brainfoundation at aol.com
ABSTRACT: During the past century, a substantial increase has
occurred in the size of the human brain, especially in
'association' areas of the neocortex heavily used to cope with a
complex language-driven society. It is proposed that this
neocortical expansion has made possible the large, gradual increase
in IQ that has occurred across the developed world, and been
responsible for the dramatic upsurge in the prevalence and severity
of near-sightedness (myopia) usually found after societies
urbanize. The impetus for these changes begins during prenatal
development. Findings from studies of mammals reared in captivity
suggest that there is a mechanism for adaptive epigenetic
inheritance, one capable of modifying the timing and/or extent of
gene expression prenatally, without altering the DNA sequences that
comprise protein-coding and other structural genes. Mechanisms that
appear capable of transporting such adaptive changes across the
so-called 'germ-line barrier' -- without violating the basic
precepts of Darwin's theory -- are proposed. The social and
evolutionary ramifications of our apparent proclivity for rapid,
progressive, adaptive neocortical change are discussed, as well as
some ways of testing aspects of this theory are proposed.
KEYWORDS: allergy, brain size, development, evolution, gene
expression regulation, genomic imprinting, gifted, intelligence,
myopia, neocortex.
TEXT OF THE PRECIS IS AT:
http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/psyc-bin/newpsy?11.083
THE FULL TEXT OF THE MONOGRAPH FOR REVIEW IS DOWNLOADABLE FROM:
http://www.gbhap-us.com/IJN (US)
http://www.gbhap.com/IJN (elsewhere)
PSYCOLOQUY BOOK REVIEW INSTRUCTIONS AT:
http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/psyc.htmlhttp://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/psycoloquy/
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