Researchers reveal key details of how the heat shock protein mechanism disassembles the α-synuclein amyloids linked to Parkinson’s disease.
Image credit: Rosenzweig lab, Weizmann Institute of Science.
New Research In
Physical Sciences
Featured Portals
Articles by Topic
Biological Sciences
Featured Portals
Articles by Topic
Edited by Roy Baumeister, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, and accepted by the Editorial Board March 17, 2014 (received for review January 13, 2014)
Significance
People are often the most aggressive against the people to whom they are closest—intimate partners. Intimate partner violence might be partly a result of poor self-control. Self-control of aggressive impulses requires energy, and much of this energy is provided by glucose derived from the food we eat. We measured glucose levels in 107 married couples over 21 days. To measure aggressive impulses, participants stuck 0–51 pins into a voodoo doll that represented their spouse each night, depending how angry they were with their spouse. To measure aggression, participants blasted their spouse with loud noise through headphones. Participants who had lower glucose levels stuck more pins into the voodoo doll and blasted their spouse with louder and longer noise blasts.
Abstract
Intimate partner violence affects millions of people globally. One possible contributing factor is poor self-control. Self-control requires energy, part of which is provided by glucose. For 21 days, glucose levels were measured in 107 married couples. To measure aggressive impulses, each evening participants stuck between 0 and 51 pins into a voodoo doll that represented their spouse, depending how angry they were with their spouse. To measure aggression, participants competed against their spouse on a 25-trial task in which the winner blasted the loser with loud noise through headphones. As expected, the lower the level of glucose in the blood, the greater number of pins participants stuck into the voodoo doll, and the higher intensity and longer duration of noise participants set for their spouse.
Footnotes
- ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: bushman.20{at}osu.edu.
Author contributions: B.J.B. and C.N.D. designed research; B.J.B. and M.D.H. performed research; B.J.B. wrote the paper; R.S.P. analyzed data; and C.N.D., R.S.P., and M.D.H. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. R.B. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.
Glucose and intimate partner violence
Sign up for Article Alerts
Jump to section
You May Also be Interested in
David Crowder and Gengping Zhu explain how to predict the spread of the Asian giant hornet.
If we don’t clarify terms, we risk hampering the field, confusing the public, and possibly losing a technology that may help solve some of the world’s most intractable problems.
Image credit: Stephanie Gamez (University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA).
A small fossil reptile related to dinosaurs and pterosaurs suggests a miniaturized origin for some of the largest animals to live on Earth.
Image credit: Alex Boersma (artist).
A 1.4-million-year-old handaxe made from hippopotamus bone expands the known technological repertoire of early human ancestors.
Image credit: Berhane Asfaw.