Wes Burgess

Wes Burgess M.D., Ph.D. is a psychiatrist, scientist, and author who has written books, book chapters, and over 100 scholarly articles on psychiatry, psychology, animal behavior (ethology), nonverbal communication, and human consciousness. His main contribution has been to the understanding of the mind and social relationships.

Personal History

Wes Burgess was born in Dumas, Texas, of engineer and artist parents. In high school and college, he performed music and displayed his artwork in national and international shows. Dr. Burgess earned his bachelor degree at Purdue University, his Ph.D. in Zoology at North Carolina State University, and his M.D. from the University of Miami School of Medicine, where he was president of his medical school class. Dr. Burgess completed psychiatry training at Stanford University Medical Center, where he was Chief Resident in Psychiatry.

Awards and Recognition

Dr. Burgess received the Purdue University Literary Award, the Mead Johnson Award for Excellence in Writing, and the Southern California Psychiatric Association Appreciation Award for his writing.

Career

Wes Burgess was awarded fellowships at the University of California, Los Angeles and Stanford University, going on to do medical research and teach undergraduate and graduate school courses at the Stanford University School of Medicine, the UCLA School of Medicine, the University of California, Davis, Department of Psychology, and other universities. Dr. Burgess has maintained an active private practice in neuropsychiatry for over 20 years. He consults for the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles Superior Court, and he has been a frequent guest on National Public Radio, television, and films. Currently he devotes most of his time to writing and private consultation.

Scientific Contributions

Wes Burgess was the first United States scientist to discover social spiders, which he described in Scientific American [1] and other journals.[2][3] Social spiders challenge theories of social biology because spiders are usually cannibalistic and would not be expected to form social groups. Dr. Burgess showed how social spiders modify their environment to be able to live together.[4][5] For example, Mexican spiders called Mallos gregalis spin a web that amplifies the sounds of the flies that they eat and dampens the vibrations made by other spiders, allowing Mallos spiders to live in colonies containing hundreds of thousands of individuals.[6] Another spider called Metepeira spinipes, spins two-part spider webs: individual orbs to catch prey, and vibration-damping tangled webs where spiders coexist peacefully.[7][8] Dr. Burgess also described Oecobius civitas spiders who exchange individual webs with each other as part of a unique prober/retaliator social strategy (see evolutionary game theory).[9][10]

Dr. Burgess compared the biological forces that produce social groups in shoaling and schooling fish, flocking and territorial birds, monkey colonies, and human social groups; developing techniques of measuring and displaying proxemic distances between nearest neighbor individuals in a social group.[11]

For example, fish derive mainly passive benefits from forming social groups, including physical protection from predators and better detection of food and danger from the combined awareness of many group members;[12] these ecological benefits increase with the size of the group. Dr. Burgess’ measurements showed how fish simultaneously monitor the position and activity of many speciesmates simultaneously to create large, geometric group patterns.[13][14] Bird flocks and territories are similarly organized.[15]

In comparison, we derive active social benefits from interpersonal interactions. At UCLA Medical School, Dr. Burgess measured species-typical organization of human social groups.[16] Although people can attend to and discriminate seven groupmates simultaneously,[17] humans tend to focus on just a few other individuals and form small subgroups.[18] At the University of California, Davis Department of Psychology, Dr. Burgess demonstrated that social subgroups have a typical developmental pattern that begins in early childhood [19][20] and continues throughout adulthood.[21][22] Social grouping is deficient in children with developmental disorders such as autism and mental retardation.[23][24]

Dr. Burgess found similar subgrouping patterns in rhesus monkey colonies in Puerto Rico, while working at the North Carolina Department of Mental Health Research.[25] These patterns change if only a few members receive psychoactive drugs.[26]

Social stress, especially from overpopulation and crowding during early life, can cause brain damage and impair behavior development. Although they normally live in large groups, Dr. Burgess found that fish crowded in early life develop permanent changes in their brain and behavior [27][28][29][30] that mimic the effects of drug exposure during early development.[31][32]

Dr. Burgess’ studies revealed how the dendrites of brain neurons grow during development.[33][34] Together with Dr. Richard Coss at the University of California, Davis, Dr. Burgess was the first to show that sensory stimuli, including social stressors, can cause long-lasting changes in brain cell anatomical structure in just a few minutes.[35] Together with Dr. Jaime Villablanca at UCLA, Dr. Burgess discovered that early brain injury resembling childhood congenital disorders and adult traumatic brain injury can heal naturally and that rehabilitative exercise improves brain healing.[36][37][38][39][40] He helped clarify the rôle of the caudate nucleus in aggression and found that, without input from this nucleus, usually aggressive cats are friendly and affiliative. Dr. Burgess also contributed to our understanding of how the nervous system responds to morphine,[41][42][43] especially during early development.[44]

As a psychiatrist and medical doctor, Wes Burgess studied personality disorders and other mental illnesses that impair social relations. Working at the Stanford University Medical Center Department of Psychiatry, he showed that the pathology of borderline personality disorder, including chronic depression and self harm, is linked to impaired neurocognition—the ability to perform normal thought processes.[45][46][47][48][49] He published numerous freely-available neuropsychological tests to measure human cognition, violence, and self-harm, and to improve the accuracy of medical diagnosis,[50][51] including the Card Test [52] and the Personality Inventory Scales.[53] He has written books for individuals with bipolar disorder [54][55][56][57] and major depressive disorder,[58] their caretakers, and their families; as well as books and clinical articles on DSM-5 and ICD-10 diagnosis, cognitive testing, and psychotherapy and psychopharmacology treatments for use by internal medicine doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and mental health counselors.[59][60][61]

Dr. Burgess believes that modern psychological stress and crowding impair our mental processes and worsen mental illness and physical disease. He advocates the use of relaxation techniques, meditation, and contemplation of art to reduce the stress response and clear the mind, and he has published a collection of these exercises.[62] He associates the state of clarity achieved with meditative techniques with spiritual enlightenment [63][64] and his books on Taoism [65][66][67] and Zen [68][69] explain these beliefs.

Personal life

Wes spends his free time in his nationally registered butterfly garden, supporting coastal endangered species, marine habitats, and snorkeling. His writings on snorkeling [70] promote this environmentally friendly water sport. Wes can often be found flying sport kites at Half Moon Bay, California.

Books

References

  1. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Social Spiders. Scientific American, vol 234, pp 99-106, 1976.
  2. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Social spiders. In Howard Topoff, Editor, Animal Societies and Evolution. Freeman Press, San Francisco, 1981.
  3. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Social behavior in group-living spider species. In Peter Merrett, Editor, Arachnology. Symposia, Zoological Society of London, Number. 42. Academic Press, London, 1978.
  4. ↑ Witt, Peter N. and Burgess, J. Wesley. Spider webs: Design and engineering. Naturwissenschafteliche Rundschau, vol 31, pp 269-282, 1978.
  5. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley and Witt, Peter. Spider webs: Design and engineering. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, vol 1, pp 322-335, 1976.
  6. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Web-signal processing for tolerance and group predation in the social spider Mallos gregalis. Animal Behavior, vol 27, pp 157-164, 1979.
  7. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, and Uetz, George. Social spacing strategies in spiders. In Peter N. Witt and Jerome Rovner, Editors, Spider Communication: Mechanisms and Ecological Significance. Princeton University Press, pp 317-352, 1982.
  8. ↑ Uetz, George and Burgess, J. Wesley. Habitat structure and colonial behavior in Metepeira spinipes. Psyche, vol 86, pp 79-89, 1979.
  9. ↑ Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, 2006.
  10. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Social Spiders. Scientific American, vol 234, pp 99-106, 1976.
  11. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Measurement of spacing behavior. Behavioral and Neural Biology, vol 26, pp 132-160, 1979.
  12. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, and Shaw, Evelyn. Development and ecology of fish schooling. In Paul R. Ryan, Editor, Harvesting the Sea. Van Nostrand Press, New York, 1985.
  13. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley and Shaw, Evelyn. Effects of acoustico-lateralis denervation in a facultative schooling fish: A nearest neighbor matrix analysis. Behavioral and Neural Biology, vol 33, pp 488-497, 1981.
  14. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley and Shaw, Evelyn. Development and ecology of fish schooling. Oceanus: The Magazine of Marine Science and Policy, vol 22, pp 11-17, 1979.
  15. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, Roulston, Diana, and Shaw, Evelyn. Territorial aggregation. Ecology, vol 63, pp 575-578, 1982.
  16. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Do humans exhibit "species-typical" group size? Age, sex, and environmental differences in the size and composition of natural groups. Ethology and Sociobiology, vol 4, pp 149-155, 1984.
  17. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley and Spoor, Deborah. Seven faces in a crowd: Parallel or serial information processing. International Journal of Neuroscience, vol 12, pp 93-98, 1981.
  18. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. The social biology of human populations. Ethology and Sociobiology, vol 10, pp 1-17, 1989.
  19. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, and Fordyce, Wendy K. Effects of preschool environments on nonverbal social behavior. Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol 30, pp 261-276, 1989.
  20. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, and McMurphy, Denise. Development of proxemic spacing behavior: Children's distances to surrounding playmates and adults changes between 6 months and 5 years of age. Developmental Psychology, vol 15, pp 557-567, 1982.
  21. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Interpersonal spacing behavior between surrounding nearest neighbors reflects familiarity and environmental density. Ethology and Sociobiology, vol 4, pp 11-17, 1983.
  22. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Developmental trends in proxemic spacing behavior between companions and strangers in casual groups. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, vol 7(3):158-169, 1983.
  23. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. The development of social group formation in normal and mentally retarded persons from early childhood through old age: Neuropsychiatric, developmental, and cognitive implications. Psychiatry Research, vol 30, pp 31-43, 1989.
  24. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Development of social spacing in normal and mentally retarded children. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, vol 6(2), pp 89-95, 1981.
  25. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Group spacing in rhesus monkey troops: Environmental factors. Behavioral and Neural Biology, vol 30, pp 49-55, 1980.
  26. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, Witt, Peter N., Phoebus, E., and Weisbard, Charles. The spacing of rhesus monkey troops changes when a few members receive THC or amphetamine. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, vol 13, pp 121-124, 1980.
  27. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley and Coss, Richard. Effects of chronic crowding stress on midbrain development: Changes in dendritic spine density and morphology in optic tectum. Developmental Psychobiology, vol 15, pp 461-470, 1982.
  28. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley and Coss, Richard. Short-term juvenile crowding arrests the developmental formation of dendritic spines on tectal neurons. Developmental Psychobiology, vol 14, pp 389-396, 1981.
  29. ↑ Coss, Richard and Burgess, J. Wesley. Jewelfish retain juvenile schooling patterns after crowded development. Developmental Psychobiology, vol 14, pp 451-457, 1981.
  30. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley Coss, Richard. Crowded jewelfish show changes in dendritic spine density and spine morphology. Neuroscience Letters, vol 17, pp 227-281, 1980.
  31. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, and Monachello, Mark. Chronic exposure to caffeine during early development increases dendritic spine and branch formation in midbrain tectum. Developmental Brain Research, vol 4, pp 465-472, 1983.
  32. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Chronic exposure to caffeine during early development modifies spatial behavior in juvenile fish schools. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, vol 17, pp 137-140, 1982.
  33. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, Monachello, Mark, and McGinn, Mike. Early development of spiny neurons in fish and mouse: Morphometric measures of dendritic spine formation. Developmental Brain Research, vol 6, pp 123-129, 1982.
  34. ↑ Berard, Dale, Burgess, J. Wesley, and Coss, Richard. Plasticity of dendritic spine formation: A state-dependent developmental process. International Journal of Neuroscience, vol 12, pp 93-98, 1981.
  35. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, and Coss, Richard. Rapid effects of biologically relevant stimulation on tectal neurons: Changes in dendritic spine morphology after 9 minutes are retained for 24 hours. Brain Research, vol 266, pp 217-233, 1983.
  36. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, Villablanca, J. R., and Levine, Micheal. Recovery of function after neonatal or adult hemispherectomy: Complex functions. Behavioral Brain Research, vol 20, pp 217-230, 1986.
  37. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley and Villablanca, J. R. Recovery of function after neonatal or adult hemispherectomy. Motor deficits: limb bias and development, paw usage, locomotion, and rehabilitative effects of exercise. Behavioral Brain Research, vol 20, pp 1-18, 1986.
  38. ↑ Villablanca, J. R., Burgess, J. Wesley, and Benedetti, Fabricio. There is less thalamic degeneration in neonatal-lesioned than in adult-lesioned cats after cerebral hemispherectomy. Brain Research, vol 368, pp 211-225, 1986.
  39. ↑ Villablanca, J. R., Burgess, J. Wesley, and Olmstead, Charles. Recovery of function after neonatal or adult hemispherectomy in cats. Time course, movement, posture and sensory tests. Behavioral Brain Research, vol 19, pp 205-226, 1986.
  40. ↑ Villablanca, J. R.; Burgess, J. Wesley; and Sonnier, B. J. Neonatal cerebral hemispherectomy: A model for post lesion reorganization of the brain. In C. Robert Almli and S. Finger, Editors, The Behavioral Biology of Early Brain Damage, Volume II. Academic Press, New York, pp 179-210, 1984.
  41. ↑ de Andres, Isabel, Villablanca, J. R., and Burgess, J. Wesley. Reassessing morphine effects in cats: Protracted effects on sleep-wakefulness and EEG. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, vol 21, pp 922-928, 1984.
  42. ↑ Harris, Cynthia, Villablanca, J. R., Burgess, J. Wesley, and de Andres, Isabel. Reassessing morphine effects in cats: Responses of intact, caudate nuclei-lesioned and hemispherectomized animals following chronic administration and precipitated withdrawal. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, vol 21, pp 929-926, 1984.
  43. ↑ Villablanca, J. R., Harris, Cynthia, Burgess, J. Wesley, and de Andres, Isabel. Reassessing morphine effects in cats: Specific neurobehavioral responses in intact and unilaterally brain-lesioned cats. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, vol 21, pp 913-921, 1984.
  44. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, and Villablanca, J. R. Ontogenesis of morphine-induced behavior in the cat. Journal of Brain Research, vol 1134, pp 53-61, 2007.
  45. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley, and Zarcone, Vincent P. Cognitive Impairment in dramatic personality disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, vol 149, p 136, 1992.
  46. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Neurocognitive impairment in personality disorders. Psychiatry Research, vol 42, pp 283-290, 1992.
  47. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. The relationship of depression and cognitive impairment to self-injury. Psychiatry Research, vol 38, pp 77-87, 1991
  48. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Neurocognition in acute and chronic depression. Biological Psychiatry, vol 30, pp 305-309, 1991.
  49. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Cognitive information processing in borderline personality disorder: A neuropsychiatric hypothesis. Jefferson Journal of Psychiatry, vol 8, no 2, pp 34-49, 1990.
  50. ↑ Burgess, Wes. The Mental Status Examination. 2nd Edition. Volume 1 of the Mental Status Examination Series. CreateSpace, 2013.
  51. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Examining the mental status examination: Questions that discriminate major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and personality diagnoses. Psychiatric Services (Hospital and Community Psychiatry), vol 43 (9), pp 937-939, 1992.
  52. ↑ Burgess, Wes. The Mental Status Examination for Personality Disorders. Volume 2 of the Mental Status Examination Series. CreateSpace, 2013.
  53. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. The personality inventory scale: A self-rating clinical scale for the diagnosis of personality disorders. Psychological Reports, vol 69, pp 1235-1246, 1991.
  54. ↑ Burgess, Wes. The Bipolar Handbook for Children, Teens, and Families. Avery/Penguin Press, 2008.
  55. ↑ Burgess, Wes. Transtorno Bipolar. Perguntas da Vida Real com Prespostas Atualizadas. Editora Gaia, São Paulo, Brazil, 2010.
  56. ↑ Burgess, Wes. Wes Burgess. The Bipolar Handbook. Avery/Penguin Press, 2006.
  57. ↑ Burgess, Wes. Guia del Bipolar. Ediciones Robinbook, Barcelona, Spain, 2007.
  58. ↑ Burgess, Wes. The Depression Answer Book. Sourcebooks, 2009.
  59. ↑ Burgess, Wes. The Mental Status Examination. 2nd Edition. Volume 1 of the Mental Status Examination Series. CreateSpace, 2013.
  60. ↑ Burgess, Wes. The Mental Status Examination for Personality Disorders. Volume 2 of the Mental Status Examination Series. CreateSpace, 2013.
  61. ↑ Burgess, Wes. Clinical Case Conference: A monthly featured column on diagnosis and treatment. Southern California Psychiatrist, 2003-2009.
  62. ↑ Burgess, Wes. Calm Your Mind: Exercises to Reduce Stress, Improve Focus, and Control Anxiety, Anger, and Depression. CreateSpace, 2011.
  63. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. Brain processing and states of consciousness. Bulletin of the Theosophical Science Study Group, Madras, India, vol 22, pp 3-5, 1984.
  64. ↑ Burgess, J. Wesley. The natural mind of man. American Theosophist, vol 67, pp 127-134, 1979.
  65. ↑ Burgess, Wes. The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tse. Traditional Taoist Wisdom to Enlighten Everyone. Volume 1 of the Clear Mind Series. CreateSpace, 2012.
  66. ↑ Burgess, Wes. The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tse. Mini Edition. CreateSpace, 2012.
  67. ↑ Burgess, Wes. Be Enlightened! A Guidebook to the Tao Te Ching and Taoist Meditation. CreateSpace, 2010.
  68. ↑ Burgess, Wes. The Gateless Gate of Zen. Traditional Wisdom, Koans, and Stories to Enlighten Everyone. Volume 2 of The Clear Mind Series. CreateSpace, 2012.
  69. ↑ Burgess, Wes. The Gateless Gate of Zen. Mini Edition. CreateSpace, 2012.
  70. ↑ Burgess, Wes. The Ultimate Snorkeling Book. CreateSpace, 2010.

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