It would seem that if you're in poverty you might find it impossible to concentrate, and make mistakes constantly. Now that is either correct, or I'm going to claim poverty has brought about this error. That's either clarity, or I become insane totally, and have constantly mixed up thought.
After a re-edit the latter is looking promising.
Poor Concentration: Poverty Reduces Brainpower Needed for Navigating Other Areas of Life
Poverty and all its related concerns require so much mental energy that the poor have less remaining brainpower to devote to other areas of life,
according to research based at Princeton University. As a result, people of limited means are
more likely to make mistakes and bad decisions that may be
amplified by -- and perpetuate -- their financial woes.
Published in the journal Science, thestudy presents a unique perspective
regarding the causes of persistent poverty. The researchers suggest that
being poor may keep a person from concentrating on the very avenues that
would lead them out of poverty. A person's cognitive function is diminished
by the constant and all-consuming effort of coping with the immediate effects
of having little money, such as scrounging to pay bills and cut costs. Thusly,
a person is left with fewer "mental resources" to focus on complicated, indirectly
related matters such as education, job training and even managing their time.
In a series of experiments, the researchers found that pressing financial concerns
had an immediate impact on the ability of low-income individuals to perform on
common cognitive and logic tests. On average, a person preoccupied with
money problemsexhibited a drop in cognitive function similar to a 13-point
dip in IQ, or the loss of an entire night's sleep.
But when their concerns were benign, low-income individuals performed competently,
at a similar level to people who were well off, said corresponding author Jiaying Zhao,
who conducted the study as a doctoral student in the lab of co-author Eldar Shafir,
Princeton's William Stewart Tod Professor of Psychology andPublic Affairs. Zhao
and Shafir worked with Anandi Mani, an associate professor of economics at the
University of Warwick in Britain, and Sendhil Mullainathan, a Harvard University
economics professor.
"These pressures create a salient concern in the mind and draw mental resources
to the problem itself. That means we are unable to focus on other things in life that
need our attention," said Zhao, who is now an assistant professor of psychology at
the University of British Columbia.
"Previous views of poverty have blamed poverty on personal failings, or an environment
that is not conducive to success," she said. "We're arguing that the lack of financial
resources itself can lead to impaired cognitive function. The very condition of not
having enough can actually be a cause of poverty."
The mental tax that poverty can put on the brain is distinct from stress, Shafir
explained. Stress is a person's response to various outside pressures that -- according
to studies of arousal and performance -- can actually enhance a person's functioning,
he said. In the Science study, Shafir and his colleagues instead describe an immediate
rather than chronic preoccupation with limited resources that can be a detriment to
unrelated yet still important tasks.
"Stress itself doesn't predict that people can't perform well -- they may do better up to
a point," Shafir said. "A person in poverty might be at the high part of the performance
curve when it comes to a specific task and, in fact, we show that they do well on the
problem at hand. But they don't have leftover bandwidth to devote to other tasks. The
poor are often highly effective at focusing on and dealing with pressing problems. It's
the other tasks where they perform poorly."
The fallout of neglecting other areas of life may loom larger for a person just scraping by,
Shafir said. Late fees tacked on to a forgotten rent payment, a job lost because of poor
time-management -- these make a tight money situation worse. And as people get poorer,
they tend to make difficult and often costly decisions that further perpetuate their hardship,
Shafir said. He and Mullainathan were co-authors on a 2012 Science paper that reported a
higher likelihood of poor people to engage in behaviors that reinforce the conditions of poverty,
such as excessive borrowing.
"They can make the same mistakes, but the outcomes of errors are more dear," Shafir said.
"So, if you live in poverty, you're more error prone and errors cost you more dearly -- it's hard
to find a way out."
The first set of experiments took place in a New Jersey mall between 2010 and 2011 with roughly
400 subjects chosen at random. Their median annual income was around $70,000 and the
lowest income was around $20,000. The researchers created scenarios wherein subjects had
to ponder how they would solve financial problems, for example, whether they would handle a
sudden car repair by paying in full, borrowing money or putting the repairs off. Participants were
assigned either an "easy" or "hard" scenario in which the cost was low or high -- such as $150
or $1,500 for the car repair. While participants pondered these scenarios, they performed common
fluid-intelligence and cognition tests.
Subjects were divided into a "poor" group and a "rich" group based on their income. The study
showed that when the scenarios were easy -- the financial problems not too severe -- the poor
and rich performed equally well on the cognitive tests. But when they thought about the hard
scenarios, people at the lower end of the income scale performed significantly worse on both
cognitive tests, while the rich participants were unfazed.
To better gauge the influence of poverty in natural contexts, between 2010 and 2011 the
researchers also tested 464 sugarcane farmers in India who rely on the annual harvest for
at least 60 percent of their income. Because sugarcane harvests occur once a year, these
are farmers who find themselves rich after harvest and poor before it. Each farmer was given
the same tests before and after the harvest, and performed better on both tests post-harvest
compared to pre-harvest.
The cognitive effect of poverty the researchers found relates to the more general influence of
"scarcity" on cognition, which is the larger focus of Shafir's research group. Scarcity in this
case relates to any deficit -- be it in money, time, social ties or even calories -- that people
experience in trying to meet their needs. Scarcity consumes "mental bandwidth" that would
otherwise go to other concerns in life, Zhao said.
"These findings fit in with our story of how scarcity captures attention. It consumes your
mental bandwidth," Zhao said. "Just asking a poor person to think about hypothetical financial
problems reduces mental bandwidth. This is an acute, immediate impact, and has implications
for scarcity of resources of any kind."
"We documented similar effects among people who are not otherwise poor, but on whom we
imposed scarce resources," Shafir added. "It's not about being a poor person -- it's about living
in poverty."
Many types of scarcity are temporary and often discretionary, said Shafir, who is co-author with
Mullainathan of the book, "Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much," to be published
in September. For instance, a person pressed for time can reschedule appointments, cancel
something or even decide to take on less.
"When you're poor you can't say, 'I've had enough, I'm not going to be poor anymore.' Or, 'Forget
it, I just won't give my kids dinner, or pay rent this month.' Poverty imposes a much stronger load
that's not optional and in very many cases is long lasting," Shafir said. "It's not a choice you're
making -- you're just reduced to few options. This is not something you see with many other
types of scarcity."
The researchers suggest that services for the poor should accommodate the dominance that
poverty has on a person's time and thinking. Such steps would include simpler aid forms and
more guidance in receiving assistance, or training and educational programs structured to be
more forgiving of unexpected absences, so that a person who has stumbled can more easily try
again.
"You want to design a context that is more scarcity proof," said Shafir, noting that better-off
people have access to regular support in their daily lives, be it a computer reminder, a personal
assistant, a housecleaner or a babysitter.
"There's very little you can do with time to get more money, but a lot you can do with money to
get more time," Shafir said. "The poor, who our research suggests are bound to make more
mistakes and pay more dearly for errors, inhabit contexts often not designed to help."
Why Parenting Can Never Have a Rule Book: Children's Genetics Significantly Affect How They Are Parented
A new review of dozens of studies involving more than 14,600 pairs of twins shows that children's genetics significantly affect how they are parented.
Any parent will tell you that there is no simple recipe for raising a child. Being a parent means getting hefty doses of advice -- often unsolicited -- from others. But such advice often fails to consider a critical factor: the child. A new review of dozens of studies involving more than 14,600 pairs of twins shows that children's genetics significantly affect how they are parented.
"There is a lot of pressure on parents these days to produce children that excel in everything, socially and academically," says Reut Avinun of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "Since children are not born tabula rasa, I felt it was important to explore their side of the story, to show how they can affect their environment, and specifically parental behavior." Most studies of parenting look at only the reverse, how parents affect their children's experiences.
To explore the flip side, Avinun and Ariel Knafo looked to twins. They reasoned that if parents treat identical twins, who share 100 percent of their genes, more similarly than non-identical twins, who share on average 50 percent of their genes, then it suggests that the child's genes shape parenting.
Indeed, across 32 studies of twins, they found that children's genetically-influenced characteristics do affect parental behavior. As published in Personality and Social Psychology Review, they estimated that 23 percent of differences in parenting is due to a child's genetics. The genotype-related differences are ways that the children evoke different responses from their environment. For example, a child that is antisocial is more likely to elicit harsh discipline from parents than a more social child.
In one recent study, Knafo's research group found that boys with less self-control are more likely to experience lower levels of positive maternal behavior. For boys, but not for girls, a particular genotype -- a polymorphic region in the gene that codes for the serotonin transporter -- predicted mothers' levels of positive parenting and the boys' level of self-control. "In other words, boys' genetically influenced level of self-control affected the behavior of their mothers toward them," Avinun says.
Avinun and Knafo also found that children's shared environment -- socioeconomics, cultural exposure, etc. -- accounts for 43 percent of parenting differences. And the non-shared environment -- different schools, friends, etc. -- accounts for 34 percent of the differences. Importantly, the study's findings support the idea that parenting does not necessarily affect children in the same family similarly.
Several factors affect the extent to which genetics influence parenting. Avinun and Knafo found, for example, that age was important, supporting the argument that the child's genetic influence on parenting increases with age. "As children become increasingly autonomous, their genetic tendencies are more likely to be able to affect their behavior, which in turn influences parental behavior," Avinun says.
The research in total, Avinun says, "means that parenting should not be viewed solely as a characteristic of the parent, but as something that results from both parental and child attributes." Therefore, any interventions or treatments to help parenting should consider both the parents and children, and could vary even within a family.
"The discussion of 'nature vs. nurture' has transformed into 'nature and nurture.' We now understand that most characteristics are determined by the interplay between genetic and environmental influences," Avinun says.
Because children are born differently, there never can be a general rule book for raising children, she explains. "There isn't one style of ideal parenting. Each child requires a different environment to excel. So parents should not invest a lot of effort in trying to treat their children similarly, but instead, be aware of the variation in their children's attributes and nurture them accordingly."
Ouch!!! Could you imagine that your body is full of pain constantly. Have some lower back pain myself. Could do without it getting any worse.
Severity of Acute Low Back Pain Predicts Development of Chronic Pain
Up to 70 percent of us will experience low back pain in our lifetimes and many will progress to long term, chronic low back pain. Research reported in The Journal of Pain shows that high pain intensity at onset is predictive of future pain and disability, even after five years. The Journal of Pain is the peer-reviewed publication of the American Pain Society.
Researchers with the Arthritis Research U.K. Primary Care Centre evaluated 488 primary care practice patients who sought treatment for low-back pain. The intent of the study was to determine which prognostic factors best predict poor pain and disability outcomes five years later, and compare these factors with short-term outcomes at six month follow-up. Study subjects were mailed questionnaires soon after their physician visits and were surveyed after six months and at five years. Pain and disability were measured using the Chronic Pain Grade, a seven-item chronic pain assessment tool.
Potential predictive factors were organized in four categories: demographic, physical, psychological and occupational. After six months, the results showed that baseline pain intensity was associated with a 12 percent higher risk for developing chronic low back pain and patient beliefs that pain would persist conveyed a 4 percent risk increase. After five years, baseline pain intensity yielded a 9 percent increased risk for chronic pain, while believing that pain would persist had increased the risk by 6 percent.
The authors noted that their research confirms previous studies concluding that baseline pain intensity is a key predictor of future pain and disability. This study, however, is the first to demonstrate this association over a long period of time.
Clinically, the study confirms that effective pain relief in the initial management of low-back pain has implications for long-term improvement. Also, patient beliefs that pain will persist a long time can predict progression to clinically significant low back pain independent of a wide range of other prognostic factors.
Scientists Confirm Existence of Largest Single Volcano On Earth
This 3D image of the seafloor shows the size and shape of Tamu Massif, a huge feature in the northern Pacific Ocean, recently confirmed to be the largest single volcano on Earth.
A University of Houston (UH) professor led a team of scientists to uncover the largest single volcano yet documented on Earth. Covering an area roughly equivalent to the British Isles or the state of New Mexico, this volcano, dubbed the Tamu Massif, is nearly as big as the giant volcanoes of Mars, placing it among the largest in the Solar System.
William Sager, a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at UH, first began studying the volcano about 20 years ago at Texas A&M's College of Geosciences. Sager and his team's findings appear in the Sept. 8 issue of Nature Geoscience, the monthly multi-disciplinary journal reflecting disciplines within the geosciences.
Located about 1,000 miles east of Japan, Tamu Massif is the largest feature of Shatsky Rise, an underwater mountain range formed 130 to 145 million years ago by the eruption of several underwater volcanoes. Until now, it was unclear whether Tamu Massif was a single volcano, or a composite of many eruption points. By integrating several sources of evidence, including core samples and data collected on board the JOIDES Resolution research ship, the authors have confirmed that the mass of basalt that constitutes Tamu Massif did indeed erupt from a single source near the center.
"Tamu Massif is the biggest single shield volcano ever discovered on Earth," Sager said. "There may be larger volcanoes, because there are bigger igneous features out there such as the Ontong Java Plateau, but we don't know if these features are one volcano or complexes of volcanoes."
Tamu Massif stands out among underwater volcanoes not just for its size, but also its shape. It is low and broad, meaning that the erupted lava flows must have traveled long distances compared to most other volcanoes on Earth. The seafloor is dotted with thousands of underwater volcanoes, or seamounts, most of which are small and steep compared to the low, broad expanse of Tamu Massif.
"It's not high, but very wide, so the flank slopes are very gradual," Sager said. "In fact, if you were standing on its flank, you would have trouble telling which way is downhill. We know that it is a single immense volcano constructed from massive lava flows that emanated from the center of the volcano to form a broad, shield-like shape. Before now, we didn't know this because oceanic plateaus are huge features hidden beneath the sea. They have found a good place to hide."
Tamu Massif covers an area of about 120,000 square miles. By comparison, Hawaii's Mauna Loa -- the largest active volcano on Earth -- is approximately 2,000 square miles, or roughly 2 percent the size of Tamu Massif. To find a worthy comparison, one must look skyward to the planet Mars, home to Olympus Mons. That giant volcano, which is visible on a clear night with a good backyard telescope, is only about 25 percent larger by volume than Tamu Massif.
The study relies on two distinct, yet complementary, sources of evidence -- core samples collected on Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 324 (Shatsky Rise Formation) in 2009, and seismic reflection data gathered on two separate expeditions of the R/V Marcus G. Langseth in 2010 and 2012. The core samples, drilled from several locations on Tamu Massif, showed that thick lava flows (up to 75 feet thick), characterize this volcano. Seismic data from the R/V Langseth cruises revealed the structure of the volcano, confirming that the lava flows emanated from its summit and flowed hundreds of miles downhill into the adjacent basins.
According to Sager, Tamu Massif is believed to be about 145 million years old, and it became inactive within a few million years after it was formed. Its top lies about 6,500 feet below the ocean surface, while much of its base is believed to be in waters that are almost four miles deep.
"It's shape is different from any other sub-marine volcano found on Earth, and it's very possible it can give us some clues about how massive volcanoes can form," Sager said. "An immense amount of magma came from the center, and this magma had to have come from the Earth's mantle. So this is important information for geologists trying to understand how the Earth's interior works."
Beneath Earth's Surface, Scientists Find Long 'Fingers' of Heat
Slow-moving seismic waves, hotter than surrounding material, interact with plumes rising from the mantle to affect the formation of hotspot volcanic islands.
Scientists seeking to understand the forces at work beneath the surface of Earth have used seismic waves to detect previously unknown "fingers" of heat, some of them thousands of miles long, in Earth's upper mantle. Their discovery, published Sept. 5 in Science Express, helps explain the "hotspot volcanoes" that give birth to island chains such as Hawai'i and Tahiti.
Many volcanoes arise at collision zones between the tectonic plates, but hotspot volcanoes form in the middle of the plates. Geologists have hypothesized that upwellings of hot, buoyant rock rise as plumes from deep within Earth's mantle -- the layer between the crust and the core that makes up most of Earth's volume -- and supply the heat that feeds these mid-plate volcanoes.
But some hotspot volcano chains are not easily explained by this simple model, a fact which suggests there are more complex interactions between these hot plumes and the upper mantle. Now, a computer modeling approach, developed by University of Maryland seismologist Vedran Lekic and colleagues at the University of California Berkeley, has produced new seismic wave imagery which reveals that the rising plumes are, in fact, influenced by a pattern of finger-like structures carrying heat deep beneath Earth's oceanic plates.
Seismic waves are waves of energy produced by earthquakes, explosions and volcanic eruptions, which can travel long distances below Earth's surface. As they travel through layers of different density and elasticity, their shape changes. A global network of seismographs records these changing waveforms. By comparing the waveforms from hundreds of earthquakes recorded at locations around the world, scientists can make inferences about the structures through which the seismic waves have traveled.
The process, known as seismic tomography, works in much the same way that CT scans (computed tomography) reveal structures hidden beneath the surface of the human body. But since we know much less about the structures below Earth's surface, seismic tomography isn't easy to interpret. "The Earth's crust varies a lot, and being able to represent that variation is difficult, much less the structure deeper below" said Lekic, an assistant professor of geology at the College Park campus.
Until recently, analyses like the one in the study would have taken up to 19 years of computer time. While studying for his doctorate with the study's senior author, UC Berkeley Prof. Barbara Romanowicz, Lekic developed a method to more accurately model waveform data while still keeping computer time manageable, which resulted in higher-resolution images of the interaction between the layers of Earth's mantle.
By refining this method, a research team led by UC Berkeley graduate student Scott French found finger-like channels of low-speed seismic waves flowing about 120 to 220 miles below the sea floor, and stretching out in bands about 700 miles wide and 1,400 miles apart. The researchers also discovered a subtle but important difference in speed: at this depth, seismic waves typically travel about 2.5 to 3 miles per second, but the average seismic velocity in the channels was 4 percent slower. Because higher temperatures slow down seismic waves, the researchers infer that the channels are hotter than the surrounding material.
"We estimate that the slowdown we're seeing could represent a temperature increase of up to 200 degrees Celsius," or about 390 degrees Fahrenheit, said French, the study's study lead author. At these depths, absolute temperatures in the mantle are about 1,300 degrees Celsius, or 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit, the researchers said.
Geophysicists have long theorized that channels akin to those revealed in the computer model exist, and are interacting with the plumes in Earth's mantle that feed hotspot volcanoes. But the new images reveal for the first time the extent, depth and shape of these channels. And they also show that the fingers align with the motion of the overlying tectonic plate. The researchers hypothesize that these channels may be interacting in complex ways with both the tectonic plates above them and the hot plumes rising from below.
"This global pattern of finger-like structures that we're seeing, which has not been documented before, appears to reflect interactions between the upwelling plumes and the motion of the overlying plates," Lekic said. "The deflection of the plumes into these finger-like channels represents an intermediate scale of convection in the mantle, between the large-scale circulation that drives plate motions and the smaller scale plumes, which we are now starting to image."
"The exact nature of those interactions will need further study," said French, "but we now have a clearer picture that can help us understand the 'plumbing' of Earth's mantle responsible for hotspot volcano islands like Tahiti, Reunion and Samoa."
Knowing my luck I might forget my good memories totally, and have bad memories coming back to my mind constantly. Can you imagine, all your worst nightmares all of the time now revisiting you. Yuk!
Possibility of Selectively Erasing Unwanted Memories
The human brain is exquisitely adept at linking seemingly random details into a cohesive memory that can trigger myriad associations -- some good, some not so good. For recovering addicts and individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), unwanted memories can be devastating. Former meth addicts, for instance, report intense drug cravings triggered by associations with cigarettes, money, even gum (used to relieve dry mouth), pushing them back into the addiction they so desperately want to leave.
Now, for the first time, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have been able to erase dangerous drug-associated memories in mice and rats without affecting other more benign memories.
The surprising discovery, published this week online ahead of print by the journal Biological Psychiatry, points to a clear and workable method to disrupt unwanted memories while leaving the rest intact.
"Our memories make us who we are, but some of these memories can make life very difficult," said Courtney Miller, a TSRI assistant professor who led the research. "Not unlike in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we're looking for strategies to selectively eliminate evidence of past experiences related to drug abuse or a traumatic event. Our study shows we can do just that in mice -- wipe out deeply engrained drug-related memories without harming other memories."
Changing the Structure of Memory
To produce a memory, a lot has to happen, including the alteration of the structure of nerve cells via changes in the dendritic spines -- small bulb-like structures that receive electrochemical signals from other neurons. Normally, these structural changes occur via actin, the protein that makes up the infrastructure of all cells.
In the new study, the scientists inhibited actin polymerization -- the creation of large chainlike molecules -- by blocking a molecular motor called myosin II in the brains of mice and rats during the maintenance phase of methamphetamine-related memory formation.
Behavioral tests showed the animals immediately and persistently lost memories associated with methamphetamine -- with no other memories affected.
In the tests, animals were trained to associate the rewarding effects of methamphetamine with a rich context of visual, tactile and scent cues. When injected with the inhibitor many days later in their home environment, they later showed a complete lack of interest when they encountered drug-associated cues. At the same time, the response to other memories, such as food rewards, was unaffected.
While the scientists are not yet sure why powerful methamphetamine-related memories are also so fragile, they think the provocative findings could be related to the role of dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in reward and pleasure centers in the brain and known to modify dendritic spines. Previous studies had shown dopamine is released during both learning and drug withdrawal. Miller adds, "We are focused on understanding what makes these memories different. The hope is that our strategies may be applicable to other harmful memories, such as those that perpetuate smoking or PTSD."
Mmmmmm, very interesting, and once again basically showing how easy false memories can be constructed within the brain I realize. That I have experienced false memories in the past that might have clouded my judgement about other people now could really happen then. Not that I'm saying it has in my case. Although how would I ever know?
Scientists Create New Memories by Directly Changing the Brain
Brain activity (stock image).
By studying how memories are made, UC Irvine neurobiologists created new, specific memories by direct manipulation of the brain, which could prove key to understanding and potentially resolving learning and memory disorders.
Research led by senior author Norman M. Weinberger, a research professor of neurobiology & behavior at UC Irvine, and colleagues has shown that specific memories can be made by directly altering brain cells in the cerebral cortex, which produces the predicted specific memory. The researchers say this is the first evidence that memories can be created by direct cortical manipulation.
Study results appeared in the August 29 issue of Neuroscience.
During the research, Weinberger and colleagues played a specific tone to test rodents then stimulated the nucleus basalis deep within their brains, releasing acetylcholine (ACh), a chemical involved in memory formation. This procedure increased the number of brain cells responding to the specific tone. The following day, the scientists played many sounds to the animals and found that their respiration spiked when they recognized the particular tone, showing that specific memory content was created by brain changes directly induced during the experiment. Created memories have the same features as natural memories including long-term retention.
"Disorders of learning and memory are a major issue facing many people and since we've found not only a way that the brain makes memories, but how to create new memories with specific content, our hope is that our research will pave the way to prevent or resolve this global issue," said Weinberger, who is also a fellow with the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory and the Center for Hearing Research at UC Irvine.
The creation of new memories by directly changing the cortex is the culmination of several years of research in Weinberger's lab implicating the nucleus basalis and ACh in brain plasticity and specific memory formation. Previously, the authors had also shown that the strength of memory is controlled by the number of cells in the auditory cortex that process a sound.
What if you find it impossible to take in any knowledge now about omega-3!
Low Omega-3 Could Explain Why Some Children Struggle With Reading
An Oxford University study has shown that a representative sample of UK schoolchildren aged seven to nine years had low levels of key Omega-3 fatty acids in their blood. Furthermore, the study found that children's blood levels of the long-chain Omega-3 DHA (the form found in most abundance in the brain) 'significantly predicted' how well they were able to concentrate and learn.
Oxford University researchers explained the findings, recently published in the journal PLOS One, at a conference in London on 4 September.
The study was presented at the conference by co-authors Dr Alex Richardson and Professor Paul Montgomery from Oxford University's Centre for Evidence-Based Intervention in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention. It is one of the first to evaluate blood Omega-3 levels in UK schoolchildren. The long-chain Omega-3 fats (EPA and DHA) found in fish, seafood and some algae, are essential for the brain's structure and function as well as for maintaining a healthy heart and immune system. Parents also reported on their child's diet, revealing to the researchers that almost nine out of ten children in the sample ate fish less than twice a week, and nearly one in ten never ate fish at all. The government's guidelines for a healthy diet recommend at least two portions of fish a week. This is because like vitamins, omega-3 fats have to come from our diets -- and although humans can in theory make some EPA and DHA from shorter-chain omega-3 (found in some vegetable oils), research has shown this conversion is not reliable, particularly for DHA, say the researchers.
Blood samples were taken from 493 schoolchildren, aged between seven and nine years, from 74 mainstream schools in Oxfordshire. All of the children were thought to have below-average reading skills, based on national assessments at the age of seven or their teachers' current judgements. Analyses of their blood samples showed that, on average, just under two per cent of the children's total blood fatty acids were Omega-3 DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and 0.5 per cent were Omega-3 EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid), with a total of 2.45 per cent for these long-chain Omega-3 combined. This is below the minimum of 4 per cent recommended by leading scientists to maintain cardiovascular health in adults, with 8-12 per cent regarded as optimal for a healthy heart, the researchers reported.
Co-author Professor Paul Montgomery said: 'From a sample of nearly 500 schoolchildren, we found that levels of Omega-3 fatty acids in the blood significantly predicted a child's behaviour and ability to learn. Higher levels of Omega-3 in the blood, and DHA in particular, were associated with better reading and memory, as well as with fewer behaviour problems as rated by parents and teachers. These results are particularly noteworthy given that we had a restricted range of scores, especially with respect to blood DHA but also for reading ability, as around two-thirds of these children were still reading below their age-level when we assessed them. Although further research is needed, we think it is likely that these findings could be applied generally to schoolchildren throughout the UK.'
Co-author Dr Alex Richardson added: 'The longer term health implications of such low blood Omega-3 levels in children obviously can't be known. But this study suggests that many, if not most UK children, probably aren't getting enough of the long-chain Omega-3 we all need for a healthy brain, heart and immune system. That gives serious cause for concern because we found that lower blood DHA was linked with poorer behaviour and learning in these children. 'Most of the children we studied had blood levels of long-chain Omega-3 that in adults would indicate a high risk of heart disease. This was consistent with their parents' reports that most of them failed to meet current dietary guidelines for fish and seafood intake. Similarly, few took supplements or foods fortified with these Omega-3.'
The current findings build on earlier work by the same researchers, showing that dietary supplementation with Omega-3 DHA improved both reading progress and behaviour in children from the general school population who were behind on their reading. Their previous research has already shown benefits of supplementation with long-chain omega-3 (EPA+DHA) for children with ADHD, Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, and related conditions. The DHA Oxford Learning and Behaviour (DOLAB) Studies have now extended these findings to children from the general school population.
'Technical advances in recent years have enabled the measurement of individual Omega-3 and other fatty acids from fingerstick blood samples. 'These new techniques have been revolutionary -- because in the past, blood samples from a vein were needed for assessing fatty acids, and that has seriously restricted research into the blood Omega-3 status of healthy UK children until now,' said Dr Richardson.
The authors believe these findings may be relevant to the general UK population, as the spread of scores in this sample was within the normal population range for both reading and behaviour. However, they caution that these findings may not apply to more ethnically diverse populations as some genetic differences can affect how Omega-3 fatty acids are metabolised. Most of the children participating in this study were white British.
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Topic: Science and Nature News Redux
That's either clarity, or I become insane totally, and have constantly mixed up thought. 
