Sex Boosts Brain Growth 251
climenole writes "Sex apparently can help the brain grow, according to new findings in rats. Sexually active rodents also seemed less anxious than virgins, Princeton scientists discovered. Past findings had shown that stressful, unpleasant events could stifle brain cell growth in adults. To see if pleasant albeit stressful experiences could have the opposite effect, researchers studied the effects of sex in rats."
Re:Bullshit (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes, but let's look at business school types. Your typical MBA probably at least was on a crew team in high school or college. Lacrosse is a good substitute, too. Their undergrad major was probably in a subject where there were lots of girls, so they had more opportunity to get to know women and how to interact with them, thus more chances for breeding.
They then went on to get an MBA, bought a new BMW 'cause the one their dad gave them for their 16th birthday was showing its age, and probably kept on playing squash or basketball at the Harvard Club with their alumni friends. So, now they're in shape and have shiny things to use as bait to attract a mate (the BMW).
The professional athletes skip the MBA step and go straight to the fancy cars and lots of money.
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But, back to the text of the article itself, it indicates:
1) that males who merely interacted with females on a more regular basis were less nervous in general than the ones who only got to see a female every 2 weeks.
2) the ones who were sexually active were less risk-adverse, such as more willing to eat food in strange places.
compare this to humans:
1) your typical nerd male who spends all his time in a lab or on a computer and doesn't get out much, doesn't really know what is and is not ok to say to girls in the rare instances where its required to interact with one outside of the context of a checkout clerk at the convenience store.
2) your typical nerd male is going to be harder to talk into doing risky behavior such as hang gliding or whatever, because he'll be too busy worrying about the elevated risk of death, subconsciously due to the fact that he more than likely hasn't reproduced yet, and therefor would lose evolution.
So, the immediate lesson from the study basically boils down to if you have more experience around the opposite sex you're not going to freak out and be awkward, and if you've already passed on your genes then it really doesn't matter what happens to you, from an evolutionary standpoint. The MBA works just as well as the pro athlete.
Besides, if I just wanted to be a dick about it, I could always just pull out Brian May, the guitarist for Queen, who recently finished a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College in London. That's a good counter-argument to the original poster's Bon Jovi jab.
Re:Now I understand... (Score:2, Interesting)
Judaism doesn't want you to feel horrible or tell you that the world is bad.
Christianity went sideways with that aspect, Islam can do that, but generally isn't about guilt.
Re:Bullshit (Score:1, Interesting)
/me checks the 'Post anonymously' checkbox is really clicked.
"1) that males who merely interacted with females on a more regular basis were less nervous in general than the ones who only got to see a female every 2 weeks."
I have noticed that since I switched watching random TV for an hour a day, for watching certain sorts of camgirls, my anxiety has gone way down.
Namely - not solely the ones that are simply girls wiggling for tips, but ones where the atmosphere is more like a moderately active IRC channel, just with a (sometimes) naked girl as one participant, interacting with the others on a wide range of topics.
Sure - interaction in person would be better, and probably more healthy. ... getting out of the house is not easy for me. /me checks post anonymously is still ticked.
But for a number of reasons - disability - poor transport -
Re:Bullshit (Score:5, Interesting)
The major goal in any living being's life is to ensure the survival of his genes.
Nothing personal, but no.
It is true that natural selection requires you to compete successfully in order to continue to exist, and that includes reproduction. But, natural selection is not the only principle governing nature, it is merely a very important one. A lot of behavior is effectively orthogonal to survival: you can do something, or not it, and your survival chances are the same. Furthermore, life is not entirely a zero sum game. Certain things, like cultivation of intelligence increase your chances of survival to the point where you have freedom for a lot more besides that. You can say that its instinct for propagation of genes that compels us to learn. And there's truth in that. But satisfying the instinct is just one condition that has to be met. Its not everything.
You're free to pick any 'major goal' in life that you find compelling. Of course, if your goal isn't conducive to the survival of your bloodline, then nature will kill you off. But that doesn't mean its impossible to make that choice.
If more nerds got some, maybe we'd have the Higgs Boson on lock already.
Historically, how common is it for scientists to get serious work done when they're in love or chasing hot women? The degree of concentration and dedication required for groundbreaking work would seem to me to usually preclude that. Sure, lots of famous scientists fooled around or had lots of kids. But I have a hard time believing very many of them were doing their best work in those periods, or that it occupied a very high part of their attention.
Re:Bullshit (Score:4, Interesting)
There may be other aspects of sex affecting the brain also.
Some believe that hormones transmitting during some sex relieve depression. [salon.com]
Re:Bullshit (Score:4, Interesting)
Now from personal experience, something most slashdotters don't have, I would say the real thing is both more effective and has a longer duration.