Heidegger on Schelling's concept of freedom

Continental Philosophy Review -     

Pain‐induced aggression and changes in social behavior in mice

The effects of neuropathic, formalin, and acetic acid‐induced visceral pain were investigated on the social and aggressive behaviors in the Swiss male mice. Neuropathic pain was induced by tibial nerve transection (TNT). Also, somatic and visceral pain was conducted by intraplantar injection of diluted formalin (1%, 20 μl) and intraperitoneal administration of acetic acid (0.6%, 200 μl), respectively. Fourteen and twenty one days after the TNT surgery, and also, 1 and 7 days following formalin and acetic acid administration, the three‐chambered test was used to determine sociability and preference for social novelty and resident/intruder test was used for the evaluation of the aggressive behaviors. In the sociability phase of the three‐chambered test, all the three models of pain did not change the animal's sociability. However, in the social novelty preference phase, the animals in pain showed deficits in social novelty preference by a significant increase in the time spent with the familiar mice compared to the control groups. Also, animals in pain significantly showed more aggressive behaviors like biting and clinching and have much less attack latency in comparison to the control groups. Pain‐induced changes in the social novelty preference and aggressive behaviors continued in the neuropathic group until the end of the experiment. However, 7 days following the induction of both formalin and visceral pain, animals' social memory, and aggression almost returned to the standard value. These results suggest that long‐lasting pain could lead to social memory impairment and increase aggressive behaviors in mice.     

Perceived facial adiposity conveys information about women's health

Although several prominent theories of human facial attractiveness propose that some facial characteristics convey information about people's health, empirical evidence for this claim is somewhat mixed. While most previous research into this issue has focused on facial characteristics such as symmetry, averageness, and sexual dimorphism, a recent study reported that ratings of facial adiposity (i.e., perceptions of fatness in the face) were positively correlated with indices of poor physical condition in a sample of young adults (i.e., reported past health problems and measures of cardiovascular fitness). These findings are noteworthy, since they suggest that perceived adiposity is a potentially important facial cue of health that has been overlooked by much of the previous work in this area. Here, we show that ratings of young adult women's facial adiposity are (1) better predicted by their body weight than by their body shape (Studies 1 and 2), (2) correlated with a composite measure of their physical and psychological condition (Study 2), and (3) negatively correlated with their trait (i.e., average) salivary progesterone levels (Study 3). Together, these findings present further evidence that perceived facial adiposity, or a correlate thereof, conveys potentially important information about women's actual health.