In this talk, Daniel Povinelli (Univ of Louisiana at Lafayette) suggests that "desperately seeking explanation" is a uniquely human mental function. In science, this "explanatory drive" can be properly regarded as a mania, which, as it proceeds largely uncontrolled, will continue to yield products that both improve, and threaten, our very existence. (#24979)

Evolution

1. 

   Deprivation of Nutrition as a Factor in Human Cognitive Evolution - CARTA presents Impact of Early Life Deprivation on Cognition – Marcus Pembrey
2. 

   The Effects of Early Psychosocial Deprivation on Brain-Behavioral Development: Findings from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project - CARTA presents Impact of Early Life Deprivation on Cognition – Charles Nelson
3. 

   Developmental Amnesia - CARTA presents Impact of Early Life Deprivation on Cognition – Faraneh Vargha-Khadem

Social Science: Anthropology

1. 

   CARTA- Birth to Grandmotherhood: Childrearing in Human Evolution – Sharing Childcare and Knowledge in Infancy, Grandmothers and the Extended Family, and Human Fathers
2. 

   CARTA- Birth to Grandmotherhood: Childrearing in Human Evolution – Breast Milk and Breastfeeding, Oxytocin Pathways and Human Evolution, and Hunter-Gatherer Childhood and Human Evolution
3. 

   CARTA: Birth to Grandmotherhood: Childrearing in Human Evolution – Birth and the Newborn Infant, Infant State in Apes and Humans, and Born Human: How the Utterly Dependent Survive