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56 news posts in Frontiers in Physiology

Featured news

10 May 2022

Children grow faster during school year than during summer holidays

By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science writer Image credit: MIA Studio / Shutterstock.com Children grow faster during the school year than during the summer period, show scientists. In contrast to the strong seasonality of vertical growth, there is little seasonality in increase in body weight over time. Slower vertical growth affects the BMI and contributes to the “obesogenicity” of the summer period. It has been long recognized that in Western countries, children are more likely to become overweight or obese over the summer. Causes of this include changes in kids’ physical activity and diet over the summer period, including the summer holidays. But in a new study in Frontiers in Physiology, scientists from the US show that this ‘obesogenicity” of summers has another unexpected cause: children grow faster over the school year than over the summer. And because Body Mass Index (BMI) is the ratio of body weight in kg and height in meters squared, faster vertical growth during the school leads to increased BMI during summers. “Here we show seasonality in standardized body mass index (BMIz), with children gaining height at a greater rate during the school year compared to the summer,” said Dr Jennette P Moreno, an assistant professor […]

Featured news

09 Nov 2021

Off-world colony simulation reveals changes in human communication over time with Earth

By Colm Gorey, Frontiers science writer Image: SciePro/Shutterstock.com Future planetary colonists will experience isolation like no other group in human history, which is why scientists on Earth are attempting to see how we communicate in the most extreme situations. In a paper published with Frontiers, researchers in Russia observed volunteers in isolation attempting to replicate life in deep space to see how it would impact their mood and communication styles. Despite some initial differences, the eventual cohesion of the team offers hope for future moon and Mars colonists. Elton John famously sang that Mars “ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids”, but one day space agencies across the globe hope to prove him wrong by seeing the first human establishing the first colony on the Red Planet, and elsewhere in the solar system. However, those who make the journey will not only have to survive on a freezing planet with no breathable atmosphere, but live in isolation unlike any other explorers in human history. At its closest proximity, Mars is still almost 55m km away from Earth, making communication delays and supply issues between the two worlds unavoidable. This requires crew members to effectively cope with stressful conditions […]

Featured news

30 Sep 2021

Living at high altitudes may lower chance of having a deadly stroke

By Conn Hastings, science writer A town in the Ecuadorian Andes mountains. Image: ireneuke/Shutterstock.com Researchers in Ecuador are the first to investigate the risk of stroke-related death and hospitalization in people living at four different altitude ranges. They found that those living at higher altitudes have a reduced risk of death or hospitalization because of a stroke, and tend to experience strokes at a greater age. This protective effect was greatest between 2,500 and 3,500 meters.  Could living at high altitudes affect your chance of suffering a stroke? This intriguing question is at the heart of a new study in open-access journal Frontiers in Physiology. The study is the first to examine the incidence of stroke-related hospitalization and death in people living at four different elevations in Ecuador, and includes data gathered over 17 years on more than 100,000 stroke patients. Strikingly, the study finds that people living at higher altitudes have a lower risk of stroke and stroke-related death, and that this protective effect is strongest at between 2,000 and 3,500 meters. ► Read original article► Download original article (pdf) Having the right altitude Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. A stroke typically occurs because of a […]

Featured news

17 Mar 2021

Astronauts in crewed Mars missions could misread vital emotional cues

By Tania Fitzgeorge-Balfour, Frontiers science writer Long-exposure photo of the centrifuge used to simulate microgravity in the research subjects. Image: DLR Spending an extended period with reduced gravity, as would be experienced by astronauts on long space missions, may have a negative effect on cognitive performance, and in particular emotion recognition, reveals a new study. Hoping to counteract these changes, researchers found that short periods of artificial gravity did not have the desired effect. The findings of this study could have implications for effective teamwork in future space travel, especially for manned missions to Mars. Living for nearly 2 months in simulated weightlessness has a modest but widespread negative effect on cognitive performance that cannot be counteracted by short periods of artificial gravity, finds a new study published in Frontiers in Physiology. While cognitive speed on most tests initially declined but then remained unchanged over time in simulated microgravity, emotion recognition speed continued to worsen. In testing, research participants were more likely to identify facial expressions as angry and less likely as happy or neutral. ► Read original article► Download original article (pdf) “Astronauts on long space missions, very much like our research participants, will spend extended durations in microgravity, confined to […]

Life sciences

26 Feb 2021

New open-source platform accelerates research into the treatment of heart arrhythmias

By Rozi Harsanyi / School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King’s College London Image: megaflopp / Shutterstock An open-source platform, OpenEP co-developed by researchers from the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences at King’s College London has been made available to advance research on atrial fibrillation, a condition characterized by an irregular and often fast heartbeat. It can cause significant symptoms such as breathlessness, palpitations and fatigue, as well as being a major contributor to stroke and heart failure. Current research into the condition involves the interpretation of large amounts of clinical patient data using software written by individual research groups. But a new study recently published in Frontiers in Physiology shows that the OpenEP platform, developed in collaboration between King’s College London, the University of Edinburgh, Invicro, a Konica Minolta Company, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College London, is capable of doing close to 90 per cent of the types of analyses that are performed in contemporary electrophysiology studies, enabling researchers to focus on their specific hypothesis or research question. Having a standardized way of using data processing techniques can also help to make them reproducible for other scientists. Lead author, Dr Steven […]