Soccer and brain injury
Study subjects: 34 amateur soccer players
Location of study: U.S.
Results: Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that frequently heading a ball was linked to impaired brain function and possible brain injury.
Significance: Even non-traumatic brain injury repeated over time could affect cognitive function.
Detached mothers breed fat kids
Study subjects: 977 people
Location of study: U.S.
Results: Pediatrics journal reports that children who have poor emotional relationships with their mothers are more than twice as likely to become obese. Researchers from Ohio State College of Public Health and Temple University found that lower-quality relationships between mothers and children during their first years caused a higher risk of obesity by age 15.
Significance: Researchers concluded that children who feel insecure are more likely to become obese because they are less able to deal with stress, which in turn causes comfort eating and poor sleep patterns.
Today’s humans have better sense of smell than Neanderthals
Study subjects: Skulls
Location of study: Spain
Results: A study at the Spanish Natural Science Museum found that the human temporal lobes, which deal with smell, are 12 percent larger in modern humans than in Neanderthals.
Significance: The study noted that the sense of smell is among the oldest senses in vertebrates and has a direct connection with memory, which explains why specific smells trigger certain memories.
