Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are important nutrient signals that have direct and indirect effects. Frequently, BCAAs have been reported to mediate antiobesity effects, especially in rodent models. However, circulating levels of BCAAs tend to be increased in individuals with obesity and are associated with worse metabolic health and future insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). A hypothesized mechanism linking increased levels of BCAAs and T2DM involves leucine-mediated activation of the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1), which results in uncoupling of insulin signalling at an early stage. A BCAA dysmetabolism model proposes that the accumulation of mitotoxic metabolites (and not BCAAs per se) promotes β-cell mitochondrial dysfunction, stress signalling and apoptosis associated with T2DM. Alternatively, insulin resistance might promote aminoacidaemia by increasing the protein degradation that insulin normally suppresses, and/or by eliciting an impairment of efficient BCAA oxidative metabolism in some tissues. Whether and how impaired BCAA metabolism might occur in obesity is discussed in this Review. Research on the role of individual and model-dependent differences in BCAA metabolism is needed, as several genes (BCKDHA, PPM1K, IVD and KLF15) have been designated as candidate genes for obesity and/or T2DM in humans, and distinct phenotypes of tissue-specific branched chain ketoacid dehydrogenase complex activity have been detected in animal models of obesity and T2DM.

/pdf/branched-chain-amino-acids-in-metabolic-signalling-and-3tfteoniqu.pdf

Branched-chain amino acids in metabolic signalling and insulin resistance

It is widely assumed that human learning and the structure of human languages are intimately related. This relationship is frequently suggested to derive from a language-specific biological endowment, which encodes universal, but communicatively arbitrary, principles of language structure (a Universal Grammar or UG). How might such a UG have evolved? We argue that UG could not have arisen either by biological adaptation or non-adaptationist genetic processes, resulting in a logical problem of language evolution. Specifically, as the processes of language change are much more rapid than processes of genetic change, language constitutes a "moving target" both over time and across different human populations, and, hence, cannot provide a stable environment to which language genes could have adapted. We conclude that a biologically determined UG is not evolutionarily viable. Instead, the original motivation for UG - the mesh between learners and languages - arises because language has been shaped to fit the human brain, rather than vice versa. Following Darwin, we view language itself as a complex and interdependent "organism," which evolves under selectional pressures from human learning and processing mechanisms. That is, languages themselves are shaped by severe selectional pressure from each generation of language users and learners. This suggests that apparently arbitrary aspects of linguistic structure may result from general learning and processing biases deriving from the structure of thought processes, perceptuo-motor factors, cognitive limitations, and pragmatics.

/pdf/language-as-shaped-by-the-brain-24xipzkzns.pdf

Language as shaped by the brain

Languages differ widely in the ways they encode time. I test the hypothesis that the languages that grammatically associate the future and the present, foster future-oriented behavior. This prediction arises naturally when well-documented effects of language structure are merged with models of intertemporal choice. Empirically, I find that speakers of such languages: save more, retire with more wealth, smoke less, practice safer sex, and are less obese. This holds both across countries and within countries when comparing demographically similar native households. The evidence does not support the most obvious forms of common causation. I discuss implications for theories of intertemporal choice.

/pdf/the-effect-of-language-on-economic-behavior-evidence-from-5g7egkflfh.pdf

The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior: Evidence from Savings Rates, Health Behaviors, and Retirement Assets.

Using the visual world paradigm to study language processing: a review and critical evaluation.

SECTION ONE: GENERAL BACKGROUND SECTION TWO: GROUPS, PATTERNS, TEXTURES SECTION THREE: CONTOURS AND SHAPES SECTION FOUR: FIGURE-GROUND ORGANIZATION SECTION FIVE: SURFACE AND COLOUR PERCEPTION SECTION SIX: MOTION AND EVENT PERCEPTION SECTION SEVEN: PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION AND OTHER MODALITIES SECTION EIGHT: SPECIAL INTEREST TOPICS SECTION NINE: APPLICATIONS OF PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION SECTION TEN: THEORETICAL APPROACHES

The Oxford handbook of perceptual organization

English and Russian color terms divide the color spectrum differently. Unlike English, Russian makes an obligatory distinction between lighter blues ("goluboy") and darker blues ("siniy"). We investigated whether this linguistic difference leads to differences in color discrimination. We tested English and Russian speakers in a speeded color discrimination task using blue stimuli that spanned the siniy/goluboy border. We found that Russian speakers were faster to discriminate two colors when they fell into different linguistic categories in Russian (one siniy and the other goluboy) than when they were from the same linguistic category (both siniy or both goluboy). Moreover, this category advantage was eliminated by a verbal, but not a spatial, dual task. These effects were stronger for difficult discriminations (i.e., when the colors were perceptually close) than for easy discriminations (i.e., when the colors were further apart). English speakers tested on the identical stimuli did not show a category advantage in any of the conditions. These results demonstrate that (i) categories in language affect performance on simple perceptual color tasks and (ii) the effect of language is online (and can be disrupted by verbal interference).

/pdf/russian-blues-reveal-effects-of-language-on-color-4p338uir1u.pdf

Russian blues reveal effects of language on color discrimination

Selective plasticity of primary afferent innervation to the dorsal horn and autonomic nuclei following lumbosacral ventral root avulsion and reimplantation in long term studies.

Circadian rhythms are essential processes that coordinate the timing of basic organismal functions at the molecular, cellular, and behavioral levels. Oscillations are generated by the core molecular clock, which is composed of transcriptional activators (such as Bmal1 and Clock ) and repressors (such as the Period gene family). These activators are present in many types of central and peripheral tissues, including the liver (1) and adipose tissue (2). The oscillations of the core clock then regulate the rhythmic expression of other genes, such as those involved in insulin production (3), which in turn contributes to physiological rhythms in insulin secretion (4), as well as glucose and leptin levels (5,6). Under normal conditions, these rhythms are entrained by the 24-h cycles of light exposure and feeding behavior. However, a growing body of literature has begun to link circadian misalignment with human disease, including metabolic and cardiovascular dysfunction.

A study of polymorphisms in the Clock gene in humans revealed that the molecular clock may play a role in cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes (7). Indeed, misalignment of environmental and endogenous rhythms, as seen in nighttime shift-workers, has revealed that this population has a higher incidence of obesity and diabetes (8). Simulated circadian misalignment mimicking shift work in humans results in disturbed metabolism as exemplified by decreased leptin, increased glucose …

https://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/diabetes/62/6/1829.full.pdf

Disrupting Rhythms: Diet-Induced Obesity Impairs Diurnal Rhythms in Metabolic Tissues

Author(s): Witthoft, Nathan; Winawer, Jonathan; Wu, Lisa; Frank, Michael; Wade, Alex; Boroditsky, Lera

Effects of language on color discriminability

Reflexive social attention elicited by biological motion

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