Smile can be sensed before it appears
People can sense a genuine smile before it even appears on a face, researchers say. But a forced or polite smile does not transmit the same signals, meaning we only detect it when it is visible.
Researchers say the study reflects the unique social value of a heartfelt smile, which involves specific movements of muscles around the eyes. A team from Bangor University had noted that pairs of strangers getting to know one another not only exchanged smiles, they almost always matched the particular smile type, whether genuine or polite.
But they responded much more quickly to their partners’ genuine smiles than their polite smiles, suggesting that they were anticipating the genuine smiles.
Meditation boosts student grades
A form of meditation made popular by John lennon and his Beatles band mates during the “flower power” era has been found to improve students’ grades.
A study of school pupils found that performing two 20-minute sessions of Transcendental Meditation each day improves academic achievement. The practice involves sitting still with eyes closed while chanting a mantra — also sometimes derided as “oming”. It became synonymous with hippy culture in the 1960s after The Beatles embraced it following a visit to India where they were taught the technique by the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Now a growing body of research is suggesting it can have a positive effect on people’s lives. Recent studies have shown that it can be used to treat high blood pressure and help people overcome psychological problems.
Header candamage player’s brain
Heading a ball can leave footballers with brain abnormalities and memory loss, a study has found. Players most fond of the “header” suffer changes similar to those seen in patients with traumatic brain injury, scans have revealed. Researchers in the US used an advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique to study the brains of 37 amateur adult soccer players. The technique, known as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), can identify microscopic changes to the brain’s white matter, which consists of billions of nerve fibres. like communication cables, the fibres, or axons, connect different regions of the brain. “There is significant concern that heading the ball — a key component of soccer — might cause damage to the brain,” said study leader Dr Michael lipton from New York.