Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Serotonin,the Alpha Crawdad and Cultural Nutrition,Malnutrition by Tony Ryals

Consider,
The top crayfish,
To its subordinate fellow crustacean,
It is mean,
Ripping open its abdomen,
With a swish,
Of its tail,
It seems to learn this behavior as well,
Getting,
First dibs on food,
And the best,
Rock crevice,
To nest in,
The alpha crawdad,
It’s bad,
It’s past winning experience,
Rather than merely genetics,
Induces,
Serotonin receptor sites to grow,
And so,
They gain neural prominence,
Further increasing the crayfish’s tail-flipping dominance,
Performance and response,
Until one day it loses,
Then serotonin receptor sites diminish,
The former alpha crayfish,
Relearns subordinance,
Serotonin,
Neurotransmitter or hormone?
Depending upon,
Not only the quantity,
Of serotonin,
But quality of receptor sites a crawdad has grown,
So, neurotransmitters don’t act alone,
Serotonin won’t enhance,
A crayfish’s aggressive response,
If receptor sites are not there to turn on,
To react upon,
If not, then that former alpha crawdad’s reign will be done,
Perhaps a survival mechanism,
To protect them,
From the new alpha crawdad’s aggression,
According to Shih-Rung Yeh,
Of Georgia State University,
Serotonin receptors of crawdads,
Are of at least two kinds,
And to both of these nerve receptors,
Serotonin binds,
But only one triggers the aggressive tail-flipping frenzies,
The other putting the crayfish at ease,
Leaving the non-alpha crayfish at peace,
Serotonin,
Neurotransmitter or hormone?
Also found in the human brain,
An eye for an eye,
A claw for a claw,
That’s what the hormone says,
When it bonds,
To the aggression-producing,
Nerve receptors,
God’s or the devil’s,
Little molecular messengers?
Serotonin,
More produced in men,
Than in women,
But perhaps,
As in the case of the crawdad,
Affecting different receptor sights,
Whose development is influenced,
Not just by sex,
But also by nutrition and experience,
Neither neuroreceptors,
Nor probably neurotransmitters,
Are replicated in a manner that’s completely,
Genetically,
Hardwired,
But instead are modified,
By the environmental,
Cultural,
Experiential,
Influences of the peripheral,
Nervous system,
Interacting with the central,
Nervous system,
Evolution of experientially evolved software,
Within the cerebral hardware,
German shepards from the same litter,
One a playful house pet,
Never a threat,
While his brother,
Or sister,
Is trained to be a killer,
One might even suspect,
Similar effects,
Caused by human experience,
Somewhat independent of genetics,
Like that between chickens and rooster,
As they learn their pecking order,
Or even the mountain gorilla,
For that matter,
Nutrition and genetics,
But then again experience,
All elicit their effects,
On the behavioral,
What might be called by some,
Cultural or experiential nutrition,
Or cultural or experiential malnutrition,
In addition,
To genetics and food nutrition,

No comments:

Post a Comment