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New gender biases discovered

New gender biases discovered

by | 2022 Apr 14 | Public, Quick Hits

unconscious bias brain

There have been many studies on gender biases, and I have followed, written, and spoken about many of these biases over the years (over a decade actually) but two studies have just come out that caught my eye.

One out of New York University focused on gender natural words and found that they are not gender neutral! Specifically, the two most neutral or inclusive words, presupposedly, “person” and “people”.

By analysing language and how similar words are used together (much like words tea and pot may collocate and be related). They found that there is a bias to relate the word person and people more to men than women. This is important because these are precisely the words used in public policy.

In another unrelated and contrasting study another form of bias was uncovered and this was in faces and voices of men and women on neutral characters. What the researchers at the University of Essex found is that faces, and voices were more likely to be judged as male if they were angry and female if they were happy.

Is this good for men or women? I don’t know but shows how there are natural inbuilt biases in us in many ways! Many of which we are probably completely oblivious to.

 

References:

April H. Bailey, Adina Williams, Andrei Cimpian. 
Based on billions of words on the internet, people = men. 
Science Advances, 2022; 8 (13)
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm2463

Sebastian Korb, Nace Mikus, Claudia Massaccesi, Jack Grey, Suvarnalata Xanthate Duggirala, Sonja A. Kotz, Marc Mehu. 
EmoSex: Emotion prevails over sex in implicit judgments of faces and voices.. 
Emotion, 2022
DOI: 10.1037/emo0001089

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Growth of your brain over your life

Growth of your brain over your life

by | 2022 Apr 13 | Public, Quick Hits

brain scans

So, we all know that our brain grows very quickly as babies and children and then after a certain age, younger than some of us may like to think, there begins a slow decline. But precisely what and how is the question.

Well, this is a question that an international collaboration of researchers coordinated by the University of Cambridge set out to answer. They analysed over 125,000 brain scans from over 100 studies and have built brain charts form a 15-week old foetus to a hundred year-old. This gives new unprecedented insight into the changes in the human brain over a lifetime. Some key milestones in brain development are:

    • The volume of grey matter (brain cells) increases rapidly from mid-gestation onwards, peaking just before we are six years old. It then begins to decrease slowly.
    • Grey matter volume in the subcortex (which controls bodily functions and basic behaviour) peaks in adolescence at 14-and-a-half years old.
    • The volume of white matter (brain connections) also increased rapidly from mid-gestation through early childhood and peaks just before we are 29 years old.
    • The decline in white matter volume begins to accelerate after 50 years.

This is an amazing technical feat and is an incredibly useful clinical tool but also just gives us fascinating insights into the brain and what happens to our own brains over our lifetime.

I now know I need to look after my white matter, gulp!

 

Reference:
R. A. I. Bethlehem, J. Seidlitz, S. R. White, et al.
Brain charts for the human lifespan.
Nature, 2022
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04554-y

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How to reduce loneliness

How to reduce loneliness

by | 2022 Apr 12 | Public, Quick Hits

flow brain

I have reported multiple times on loneliness during the pandemic – mostly because interest and research into loneliness has taken a large uptick.

I have also reported on how to combat this and was happy to see that a piece of research just out proved what I had already proposed and gives some solid evidence to this (and why). Not only that but it shows how best to use one’s leisure time – and achieve more life satisfaction.

The study out of Penn State looked at international university students who may be more susceptible to loneliness because they are in a new environment with less of a social network. Also, the pandemic disrupted many social activities that help these students to integrate.

What they found is that those who could engage in meaningful activities while alone felt less lonely even if these activities didn’t involve social contact. Hence, they conclude that it is the activity that one engages in, particularly in leisure time that contributes strongly towards feeling lonely or not.

They also note that getting into the state known as “flow” (which I also reported on here) also decreases propensity for loneliness and this is also positively correlated with doing meaningful activities.

So, use your time to engage in meaningful activities which will also enable to you to get into flow – and simply feel better with yourself and your life! Which incidentally is one of the reasons I write so much…

 

Reference:
Liang-Chih Chang, John Dattilo, Fei-Hsin Huang.
Relationships of Leisure Social Support and Flow with Loneliness in International Students in Taiwan: Implications during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Leisure Sciences, 2022; 1
DOI: 10.1080/01490400.2022.2056550

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COVID on the Brain

COVID on the Brain

by | 2022 Apr 11 | Public, Quick Hits

covid-19 brain

Many COVID-19 patients have reported various neurological symptoms – the well-known brain fog, but also headaches and decreased cognitive function over months and extended periods of time. This even without serious infection or hospitalization. The research seems to be swinging between reporting neurological damage or not (not, as I reported here) – despite the quality of many of these pieces of research there is still inconsistency.

This one just out (in non-human models it must be noted) reports on how COVID seems to induce severe brain inflammation and respective injuries that seem related to reduced blood flow to the brain including brain cell damage and death not to mention small brain bleeds.

What is of interest, and worrying, is that this was not correlated with severity of other symptoms – in fact these symptoms seem to affect indiscriminately, unrelated to severity or other contributing factors such as age or pre-existing conditions. This explains why some people complain of these long-lasting neurological symptoms despite not being hospitalized.

And that is enough information for me to still be cautious!

Reference:
Ibolya Rutkai, Meredith G. Mayer, Linh M. Hellmers, Bo Ning, Zhen Huang, Christopher J. Monjure, Carol Coyne, Rachel Silvestri, Nadia Golden, Krystle Hensley, Kristin Chandler, Gabrielle Lehmicke, Gregory J. Bix, Nicholas J. Maness, Kasi Russell-Lodrigue, Tony Y. Hu, Chad J. Roy, Robert V. Blair, Rudolf Bohm, Lara A. Doyle-Meyers, Jay Rappaport, Tracy Fischer. 
Neuropathology and virus in brain of SARS-CoV-2 infected non-human primates. 
Nature Communications, 2022; 13 (1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29440-z

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Life satisfaction after work related to personality traits

Life satisfaction after work related to personality traits

by | 2022 Apr 8 | Public, Quick Hits

ageing brain active

As many of you know I have done plenty of work into personality and so found this study interesting.

Dusanee Kesavayuth of Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand analysed data from 2,000 adults aged between 50 and 75 in the British Household Panel Survey and found some interesting correlations between personality and satisfaction after stopping work (for different reasons).

For example, in people who retired as part of mandatory retirement they found that those who scored higher on conscientiousness had higher levels of satisfaction. This may be surprising as conscientious is related to often to structure and getting stuff done and being effective in the workplace. But it seems to act as psychological buffer probably because conscientious people may be more proactive in finding new fulfilling life patterns. Also interesting is that those high on extraversion had lower satisfaction suggesting they miss the social aspects of work.

I found this research particularly interesting and also points to being more proactive and using personality to prepare people for retirement and making sure they get the most out of this.

Reference:
Dusanee Kesavayuth, Robert E. Rosenman, Vasileios Zikos. 
Leaving the labor market: Exit routes, personality traits and well-being. 
PLOS ONE, 2022; 17 (3): e0263670
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263670

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