Baby’s cry can alter brain functions
A constantly crying baby can not only hamper your peace, it also rattles your brain functions and alters the way you think and act to make daily decisions. The brain data revealed that the infant cries reduced attention to the task and triggered greater cognitive conflict processing than infant laughs. “Parental instinct appears to be hardwired yet no one talks about how this instinct might include cognition,” said David Haley from the University of Toronto. The team looked at infant vocalisations — in this case, audio clips of a baby laughing or crying — and its effect on adults who completed a cognitive conflict task. They asked participants to rapidly identify the colour of a printed word while ignoring the meaning of the word itself. Brain activity was measured using EEG, which took place immediately after a two-second audio clip of an infant vocalisation. Cognitive conflict processing is important because it controls attention, one of the most basic executive functions needed to complete a task or make a decision.
Third Of Heart Patients Don’t Resume Work
One in three patients who suffered heart failure and were subsequently hospitalised for the first time have not returned to work a year later, a study reveals. Heart failure significantly reduces a patient’s capacity to maintain a normal life and live independently. “Inability to maintain a full time job is an indirect consequence of heart failure beyond the usual clinical parameters of hospitalisation and death,” said Rasmus Roerth, a physician at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. The findings showed that one year after being hospitalised for heart failure for the first time, 68 per cent of patients had returned to work, 25 per cent had not, and seven per cent had died.
Dominant men more attractive: study
Men with genetic makeup linked to social dominance and leadership are seen as more desirable romantic partners by members of the opposite sex, a study says. Conversely, men find women with genetic makeup linked to sensitivity/submissiveness more attractive. The findings published in Human Nature suggest that men and women with genotypes consistent with prevailing gender norms are seen as more desirable. Researchers from the University of California wanted to find out if mate selection could actually be influenced by people’s ability to quickly detect the so-called ‘good genes’. The team led by Karen Wu turned to speed-dating to test their predictions in a real-life scenario. In such meet-ups, participants only had a few minutes to assess the short- and long-term potential of their speed-dating partners, and to decide whether or not to offer their partners a second date.