The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| High-fat diet linked to long-term changes in developing brain: study Posted: 22 Jun 2013 06:01 PM PDT If your teenagers are doing poorly in school, take another look at what they're eating. A small new animal study out of Spain suggests that adolescents who consume a high-fat diet risk long-lasting effects on learning and memory. In research presented at The Endocrine Society's 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco recently, scientists out of CEU-San Pablo University in Madrid found that adolescent mice fed a high-fat diet displayed significantly impaired spatial memory compared to a control group that consumed the same amount of calories but less fat, as well as a group of adult mice put on the same diet. Research authors speculate that the brain's memory centers are more susceptible to the effects of a high-fat diet during adolescence, given the amount of hormonal changes at this time. For the study, scientists put 15 male adolescent mice on a high-fat diet over an 8-week period, in which 45 percent of calories came from saturated fat. The control group of 15 mice was put on a conventional diet with the same number of calories. A third study group of adult mice was created to test the effects of a high-fat diet in animals later in life. Groups were placed in an open but walled box with a single chamber containing two toys and allowed to explore the space for 10 minutes. Though already familiar with the boxed environment and one of the toys, the other was new for the mice. The experiment was conducted two more times -- after a one-hour and 24-hour interval -- and the new toy placed in different spots. Researchers recorded how long it took the rodents to find the new object. What they found was that adolescent mice that received a high-fat diet took longer to find the new object compared to their counterparts. Moreover, the damage didn't reverse after the animals were put on a reduced-calorie diet, suggesting the changes could have long-lasting effects, authors said. Meanwhile, another animal study also found a possible link between high-fat diets and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children by affecting dopamine metabolism in the brain. In the study out of the University of Illinois, mice fed a diet high in fat displayed anxious behavior as well as learning and memory deficiencies. - AFP/RELAXNEWS, June 22, 2013. |
| You clap, so I clap: Peer pressure drives applause Posted: 22 Jun 2013 06:01 PM PDT
Possibly not, says an unusual investigation published Wednesday in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. Combining a psychological experiment and mathematical analysis, the research marks a scientific attempt to quantify the fuzzy notion of "social contagion" -- how individual behaviour is influenced by group dynamics. Mathematician Richard Mann of Sweden's Uppsala University and colleagues video-taped groups of university students as they responded to a seven-minute Powerpoint presentation on a biological study. Neither the students nor presenters knew the applause was being analysed. Mann and his team broke the applause down into mathematical models -- and the results were revealing. "People in the audience didn't make an independent choice about how good the talk was and then clap an appropriate number of times," Mann told AFP by email. "Instead, they responded very predictably to the social pressure around them, which we believe they felt through the volume of clapping in the room." As more people started clapping, each individual who hadn't started felt more pressure to join in, the statistics showed. "Likewise, once people began to stop clapping there was increasing pressure for everyone to stop." Mann said the results showed that group behaviour was reflected in patterns, and this knowledge had a range of uses. "Just like we measure how influenza is spreading each year, we can also measure and predict how social unrest or new fashions might spread," Mann said. "Consider, for example, a new fashion for unhealthy binge drinking. If we can measure and predict the spread of this behaviour, we can make preparations for policing and healthcare ahead of time." The method could also help predict the rate at which social networks or online groups will go out of fashion. "Humans, like animals, often respond very simply to available cues," Mann said. "Behaviour can spread through a group through the social pressure of others." - AFP/RELAXNEWS, June 22, 2013. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Features To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan