BRAIN, INTELLIGENCE, MYOPIA: PSYC Call for Multiple Review

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(a)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.html http://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(a)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.html http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/psycoloquy/