A meta-analysis of 51 twin and adoption studies was conducted to estimate the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behavior. The best fitting model included moderate proportions of variance due to additive genetic influences (.32), nonadditive genetic influences (.09), shared environmental influences (.16), and nonshared environmental influences (.43). The magnitude o...

A celebrated theorem of Friedgut says that every function f : {0, 1}n → {0, 1} can be approximated by a function g : {0, 1}n → {0, 1} with ‖f−g‖2 ≤ ǫ which depends only on eO(If/ǫ) variables where If is the sum of the influences of the variables of f . Dinur and Friedgut later showed that this statement also holds if we replace the discrete domain {0, 1}n with the continuous domain [0, 1]n, und...

Recently published work and emerging research efforts have suggested that the olfactory system is intimately linked with the endocrine systems that regulate or modify energy balance. Although much attention has been focused on the parallels between taste transduction and neuroendocrine controls of digestion due to the novel discovery of taste receptors and molecular components shared by the ton...

Ecologies shape cultures; cultures influence the development of personalities. There are both universal and culture-specific aspects of variation in personality. Some culture-specific aspects correspond to cultural syndromes such as complexity, tightness, individualism, and collectivism. A large body of literature suggests that the Big Five personality factors emerge in various cultures. Howeve...

Pain is a pivotal symptom faced by patients with rheumatic disease. Nevertheless, mechanisms of articular pain remain unclear and there is little correlation between pain, disability, and radiological change. ' Although a protective function for the pain sensory system has long been assumed, Wall and others have suggested that the system may also function to modify local responses to tissue tra...

Research reveals dramatic differences in the ways that people from different cultures perceive the world around them. Individuals from Western cultures tend to focus on that which is object-based, categorically related, or self-relevant whereas people from Eastern cultures tend to focus more on contextual details, similarities, and group-relevant information. These different ways of perceiving ...

I welcome the opportunity to speak to my colleagues and friends on the research I wish to undertake during my next years here at the University of Auckland. This is my third Inaugural lecture since I became a Professor 15 years ago, hence I have learnt to take this opportunity seriously and cast a vision, as there are so few opportunities to talk to colleagues one’s own esoterica and passions. ...