BBC Focus - 03.2020

DISCOVERIES

People

shown

horror films

WHATDIDTHEYDO?

ResearchersattheUniversityof

TurkuinFinlandputtogethera list

ofthe 100 besthorrorfilmsofthe

last 100 years,includingclassics

suchasTheExorcistandTheDevil’s

Backbone. Theyshowedthemtoa

groupofvolunteersandmeasured

theirneuralactivity as they

watched.

WHYDIDTHEYDOTHAT?

Theywantedtofindoutwhy

humansaredrawntofilmsthatare

purposefullydesignedtobeas

scaryaspossible,andhow the

brain deals with fear.

WHATDIDTHEYFIND?

Duringperiodsinthefilmswhen

thetensionis slowlybuilding,

regionsofthebraininvolvedin

visualandauditoryperception

becomemoreactive,astheneed to

lookforcuesofthreatinthe

environmentbecomemore

important.Aftera suddenshockor

jumpscare,brainregionsinvolved

inemotionprocessing,threat

evaluation,anddecision-making

becomemoreactive,enablinga

rapidresponse.However,both

regionsareincontinuous

communicationwiththesensory

regionscontinuouslypreparingthe

responsenetworksasa scaryevent

becomesincreasinglylikely.Horror

moviesexploitthiseffectto

enhance our excitement of them.

They did what?

Cause of migraines could

be in sight

Migrainesufferers

experienceincreased

orextremesensitivity

tolightandsound,

anda newstudyfrom

theUniversityof

Birminghamand

theUniversityof

Lancastercouldfinally

ex pla i nwhy.

Migrainesarea

neurologicalcondition

characterisedby

intense,debilitating

headaches.An

estimatedsixmillion

peoplesufferfrom

migrainesintheUK–

approximately 11 per

centofthepopulation.

Thestudyfoundthatpeoplewho

sufferfrommigraineheadachesappear

tohavea hyper-excitablevisualcortex,

whichis thepartofthebrainthat

receives,integratesandprocessesvisual

informationfromtheretinas.

“Mostmigraineursalsoreport

experiencingabnormalvisualsensations

intheireverydaylife,forexample,

elementaryhallucinations,visual

discomfortsandextralightsensitivity,”

saidleadauthorDrTerenceChun

YuenFong.

Intheresearch, 60 volunteers– halfof

whomregularlysufferedfrommigraines

• hadtoratea stripedpatternaccording
  towhetherit wasuncomfortabletolook
  at,andhadtorecordanyassociated
  visualphenomenatheyexperienced.
  A furtherEEGtestwascarriedout,
  allowing researchers to track and record

specificbrainresponsepatterns.Results

frombothtestsagreed.A largerresponse

tothestripedpatternwasfoundin

thevisualcortexamongthegroupof

migrainesuffererswhencomparedto

thenon-migrainesufferers.However,the

studyalsofoundhyper-excitabilityin

thevisualcortexina subgroupofnon-

migraineurs;thosewhohadreported

additionalvisualdisturbancesbutdid

notexperiencemigraines.

“Ourstudyprovidesevidencethere

arelikelyspecificanomaliespresentin

thewaythevisualcortexofmigraine

sufferersprocessesinformationfromthe

outsideworld,”saidseniorauthorDr

AliMazaheri.“However,wesuspectit’s

onlypartofthepicturesincethesame

patternsofactivitycanalsobeseenin

non-migraineurswhoaresensitive to

certain visual stimuli.”

BRAIN

TheWildlifeInstituteofIndiahasdesigneda computerprogram

thatcanidentifyAsiaticlionsusingtheirwhiskerpatternsand

bodymarks.Monitoringthespecieshashelpedit recoverfroma

populationof 50 toapproximately500,butexistingcounting

methodsleavea marginforerrorassomelionsarecountedmore

thanonce.Todate,thenewprogramhasidentified 67 individuals

from 368 sightings.Theteamsaystheirmethodcouldbeusedto

monitor lions in India and Africa to improve conservation efforts.

NEW ID METHOD IS THE CAT’S WHISKERS