Biology subjects

Leongomez, J. D.

Publications and source records attributed to Leongomez, J. D..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Reproductive history and cognitive aging: Interactive effects of children and grandchildren in a life history framework

Cognitive decline, particularly Alzheimers disease, represents a significant global health concern. While traditional risk factors are well documented, an evolutionary perspective grounded in life history theory offers critical insights into the intergenerational dynamics influencing cognitive aging. This study empirically analyzed the relationship between reproductive history and late-life cognitive performance in women, as measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Colombian version (MOCA-Col). Specifically, we examined the moderating role of the number of grandchildren on the association between parity and cognitive performance. Using an observational, cross-sectional design with a sample of 145 women (mean age = 69.9 years), a cumulative ordinal logistic regression model was fitted to MOCA-Col scores, incorporating age and the interaction between the standardized number of children and grandchildren. A higher number of children was significantly associated with lower odds of being in a better cognitive category ({beta} = -0.869, SE = 0.305, p = 0.0104, OR = 0.42). Crucially, a significant positive interaction between number of children and number of grandchildren was observed ({beta} = 0.354, SE = 0.093, p < 0.001, OR = 1.42), indicating that the negative association between parity and cognition progressively attenuated as the number of grandchildren increased. This evidence supports human life history models and the grandmother hypothesis, suggesting that intergenerational investment may mitigate the cumulative biological costs of reproduction. The findings reflect an evolutionary trade-off between early reproductive effort and later somatic maintenance.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Self-reported Health is Related to Body Height and Waist Circumference in Rural Indigenous and Urbanized Latin-American Populations

Body height is a life-history component. It involves important costs for its expression and maintenance, which may originate trade-offs on other costly components such as reproduction or immunity. Although previous evidence has supported the idea that human height could be a sexually selected trait, the explanatory mechanisms that underlie this selection are poorly understood. Despite extensive studies on the association between height and attractiveness, the role of immunity in linking this relation is scarcely studied, particularly in non-Western populations. Here, we tested whether human height is related to health measured by self-perception, and relevant nutritional and health anthropometric indicators in three Latin-American populations that widely differ in socioeconomic and ecological conditions: two urbanised populations from Bogota (Colombia) and Mexico City (Mexico), and one isolated indigenous population (MePhaa, Mexico). Results showed that self-reported health is best predicted by an interaction between height and waist circumference, and the costs associated with large waist circumference are height-dependent, affecting taller people more than shorter individuals. If health and genetic quality cues play an important role in human mate-choice, and height and waist interact to signal health, its evolutionary consequences, including cognitive and behavioural effects, should be addressed in future research.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2017

A cross-cultural study of sex-typicality and averageness: Correlation between frontal and lateral measures of human faces

ObjectivesFacial averageness and sexual dimorphism are extensively studied attractiveness markers, which are viewed as possible indicators of biological quality. Both are complex morphological traits and both can be easily assessed from frontal and lateral projection of a human face. Interestingly, examination of mutual relations between the frontal and lateral dimensions of these markers has so far received little attention in published research.\n\nMethodsIn our cross-cultural study, we used geometric morphometric data from male and female faces from Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, and the Czech Republic, and analysed correlations between frontal and lateral measurements of averageness and degree of maleness/femaleness, i.e. individual variation in features that characterize sexual dimorphism. We also analysed whether the association between frontal and lateral measurements differs in men and women.\n\nResultsIn general, our results showed a moderate correlation in sexually dimorphic features between lateral and frontal facial configuration in both sexes, while frontal and lateral facial averageness was moderately correlated only in women. This pattern was less consistent when individual populations were analysed separately.\n\nConclusionsReferring to the multiple signalling theory, we propose that especially in women, lateral/frontal correlations support a hypothesis of redundancy of information provided by the frontal and lateral dimension of a given facial attractiveness marker. The absence of a significant correlation in male facial averageness suggests that frontal and lateral averageness may convey different information about an individual.

animal behavior and cognition↗