P450scc or cholesterol side chain cleavage enzyme is an enzyme that converts cholesterol into pregnenolone (the precursor for steroids). The kinds of steroid hormones are mineralocorticoids (i.e. aldosterone) glucocorticoids (i.e. cortisol), and sex steroids (i.e. testosterone, estrogen). In the event where P450scc is blocked, then there will be no production of mineralocorticoids, glucocorticoids, and sex steroids. There will be no production of aldosterone, cortisol, estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone. This disease is called Lipoid Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia.
The contribution of the body to cognition and control; In natural and artificial, agents are increasingly described as 'offloading computation from the brain to the body', the body is said to perform 'morphological computation'. The investigation of 4 characteristic cases of morphological computation in animals & robots show that the 'offloading' perspective is misleading. The contribution of body morphology to cognition and control is rarely computational. 1) Morphology that assists control & the rare cases 2) Morphology that assists perception 3) morphological computation proper, like reservoir computing where the body is actually used for computation, This result contributes to understanding of the relation between embodiment and computation: the question for robot design and cognitive science isn't whether computation is offloaded to the body; but to which extent the body facilitates cognition & control - how it contributes to the overall orchestration of intelligent behavior.
