D.F. Swaab > Quotes

“Cannabis affects the brain because brain cells themselves produce cannabis-like neurotransmitters. The first such compound to be identified was christened anandamide, ananda being Sanskrit for “bliss.” The proteins that transmit anandamide’s message to the brain, the receptors, are mainly located in the striatum (hence the blissful feeling) and in the cerebellum (hence the unsteady gait after taking marijuana), in the cerebral cortex (hence the problems with association, the fragmented thoughts and confusion), and in the hippocampus (hence the memory impairment). But there are no receptors in the brain stem areas that regulate blood pressure and breathing. That’s why it’s impossible to take an overdose of cannabis, as opposed to opiates.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“Als je niet meer kunt denken omdat je hersenen niet meer functioneren, dan besta je als persoon ook niet meer.”
― Dick Swaab, Wij zijn ons brein: van baarmoeder tot Alzheimer

“De kleine Rainman schuilt in ieder z'n brein.”
― Dick Swaab, Wij zijn ons brein: van baarmoeder tot Alzheimer

“Men are five times more likely than women to commit a murder. Moreover, men murder a relative or acquaintance only in 20 percent of cases, as opposed to 60 percent of cases for women.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“judicial system has no tradition of researching the effectiveness of its punishments.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“When a pregnant woman experiences stress, the brain of a female fetus will become more male and vice versa. This also appears to be an adaptive response. A girl will be able to cope better in later life if she’s robust and competitive, while a boy who isn’t macho is less likely to get into conflict with alpha males in that stressful environment.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“When a pregnant woman experiences stress, the brain of a female fetus will become more male and vice versa”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“It seems unlikely that premature babies can consciously feel pain before the twenty-ninth or thirtieth week. The pain sensors in the skin and the nerve pathways that convey pain signals are in place as early as the seventh week, enabling the fetus to respond to touch from a needle. But, contrary to the claims of fanatical pro-lifers, that certainly doesn’t constitute proof that the fetus can feel pain.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“Altering the course of rivers and moving mountains is easy. Changing someone’s character is impossible. Chinese saying”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“One of the most studied organisms in this context is the tiny polyp Hydra, which possesses only a hundred thousand cells. Its neural network is concentrated in its head and foot: a first evolutionary step toward developing a brain and spinal cord. Hydra’s nervous system contains a chemical messenger—a minuscule protein—that resembles two of our own: vasopressin and oxytocin. A protein of this kind is called a neuropeptide. In vertebrates, the gene for this particular neuropeptide first doubled and then mutated in two places, creating the two closely related but specialized neuropeptides vasopressin and oxytocin, which have recently become the focus of interest, partly because of their important role as messengers in our social brains (see chapter 9).”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“Take the myth that we use only 10 percent of our brains. You might well be forgiven for thinking this in the case of certain people, but I haven’t the faintest idea what prompted this crazy theory”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“EEG measurements in newborns show a difference between the response to touch and the response to the pain of a heel prick only as of thirty-five to thirty-seven weeks.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“In hospitals in the 1960s, alcohol was routinely administered intravenously to women at risk of giving birth prematurely.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“A child with BIID cut dolls out of a magazine and then snipped off the leg that he himself didn’t want.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“of now, the main difference has been found in the HAR1 (human accelerated region 1), a segment of a recently discovered RNA gene. The RNA that is expressed in early development (HAR1F) is specific to the reelin-producing Cajal-Retzius cells in the brain. HAR1F comes to expression together with reelin in the seventeenth to nineteenth weeks of fetal development, a crucial stage in the formation of the six-layered cerebral cortex. The mutations in this human gene are probably over a million years old and could have played a crucial role in the emergence of modern humankind. Throughout our evolution, an enormous”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“A hereditary defect in the DNA for ADH makes this hormone’s function immediately apparent. People who inherit this condition produce fifteen liters of urine a day. I have followed a family that has had the condition for five generations. It was during my internship in 1968 in Amsterdam’s Binnengasthuis Hospital that I first met them. At that time, the family’s life was largely dominated by urinating and drinking.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“The unborn child’s great sensitivity to melody might also explain why French babies cry with a rising intonation and German babies with a falling intonation, reflecting the different intonation contours of the two languages.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“The more older brothers a boy has, the greater the chance that he will be homosexual. This is due to a mother’s immune response to male substances produced by boy babies in the womb, a response that becomes stronger with each pregnancy.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“Pre-birth exposure to nicotine or amphetamines also increases the likelihood of lesbian daughters.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“The PFC plays a central role in regulating other brain areas and is responsible, among other things, for the control of our impulses, complex actions, planning, and organization.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“Children who are seriously neglected during their early development also have smaller brains (fig. 7); their intelligence and linguistic and fine motor control are permanently impaired, and they are impulsive and hyperactive.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“Whether abuse as a child is a causal factor in the development of pedophilia in adulthood, or whether there’s a genetic factor in such families, still needs to be investigated.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“The functioning of the prefrontal cortex is inhibited by alcohol, which can lead to sudden, mindless violence after a night out.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“gene, the mutation of whose DNA building blocks accelerated after the split between humans and chimpanzees, around 5.5 million years ago. The theory has also been put forward that the human brain is still evolving, on the grounds that a genetic variant of ASPM is thought to have originated only 5,800 years ago and then spread rapidly through the population. A genetic variant of the microcephalin gene (D allele of MCPH1), which regulates brain size, is thought to have only entered the DNA of Homo sapiens during the last ice age, around 37,000 years ago—yet 70 percent of the current world population carries this variant. A rapid increase of this kind is only possible if a variant confers a clear evolutionary advantage. Genes whose mutations are associated with human language have also been found. Mutations of the FOXP2 gene cause language and speech disorders that run in families. And ASPM and microcephalin also appear to have a linguistic connection.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“Although tests show no significant difference in the moral choices made by atheists and believers, the Intelligent Design movement claims that moral behavior is unique to man and derives from religion, especially Christianity.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“The differentiation of our sex organs takes place in the first months of pregnancy, while the sexual differentiation of the brain occurs in the second half of pregnancy. Since these two processes take place at different times, the theory is that in the case of transsexuality, they have been influenced independently of one another.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“Another woman with an epileptic focus in the cerebral cortex refused both medication and the option of an operation, as she enjoyed the feeling of orgasm that preceded her epileptic attacks.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“No matter what country he fights for, a wounded soldier on a battlefield will always call for his mother, not his father.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“Paternal age plays a role in autism, too: The syndrome occurs ten times more frequently in people born to fathers in their fifties than in those whose fathers were in their twenties when they were conceived.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's

“Since under the circumstances a person is no longer conscious of their own body, we of course shouldn’t interpret the reflex reactions of the spinal cord that occur when a surgeon removes organs from a brain-dead patient as an expression of pain. That’s easily said, but it’s quite a different thing for the surgeon who sees the body respond when he makes an incision to remove its organs. In the United Kingdom, anesthesia is administered for this procedure. The Dutch association of anesthetists finds this nonsensical, and scientifically speaking they’re right. In such cases an anesthetic is given to preserve not brain-dead patients but rather transplant surgeons from discomfort.”
― D.F. Swaab, We Are Our Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, from the Womb to Alzheimer's