Let’s face it
Scientists re-created the demonic distortions {that a} affected person with prosopometamorphopsia, or PMO, sees when taking a look at faces, Anna Gibbs reported in “Right here’s what faces can appear like to individuals with a uncommon visible dysfunction” (SN: 4/20/24, p. 32).
Reader John Henderson requested whether or not analysis on facial blindness may assist scientists higher perceive PMO.
The 2 problems have been linked to comparable areas within the mind, together with the fitting occipital lobe and fusiform face space, says neurologist Jason Barton of the College of British Columbia in Vancouver. So finding out one dysfunction may assist illuminate the opposite.
Henderson additionally discovered it fascinating that folks’s faces however not essentially their hair are distorted in PMO.
The mind might course of faces and hair utilizing totally different mechanisms, say Brad Duchaine and Antônio Mello, neuropsychologists at Dartmouth Faculty. They level to a 1997 paper a couple of affected person who suffered mind harm that left him unable to acknowledge objects. The harm didn’t have an effect on his recognition of the interior face — the area containing the eyes, nostril and mouth — however did impair his means to determine individuals from their hair and different exterior facial options.
Reader Gary Wilson requested if there are problems that distort senses apart from imaginative and prescient.
Completely. Along with distorting imaginative and prescient in order that objects look too massive, too small or warped, Alice in Wonderland syndrome can have an effect on how an individual senses time or feels their very own physique, Barton says.
There are additionally frequent sensory distortions like tinnitus within the ear, Duchaine and Mello say. And a few psychiatric problems, resembling schizophrenia, can induce auditory hallucinations.
Intelligent canines
Mind exercise suggests canines can acknowledge nouns and create psychological ideas of on a regular basis objects, Laura Sanders reported in “Canine know phrases for particular toys” (SN: 4/20/24, p. 11). Many readers who’ve canines weren’t stunned. X consumer @AnEnigmaDave wrote: “Each our canines knew the names of all of their toys and will discover them when requested. [One] found out I used to be trainable after she made a petting movement together with her paw and I complied. She taught me many request gestures after that epiphany.”
Microplastic perils
Sufferers with microplastics of their arteries had a roughly quadrupled danger of coronary heart assault, stroke or loss of life, Meghan Rosen reported in “Tiny plastics flip up in arterial clogs” (SN: 4/20/24, p. 6).
Microplastics kind when plastics within the surroundings break down over time. Reader Eric E. Sabelman puzzled whether or not medical gear made with plastic, resembling some hip prostheses or IV luggage and tubes, may shed microplastics throughout the physique.
That is very possible, says Laurens Mandemaker, a chemist at Utrecht College within the Netherlands. Hip prostheses, as an illustration, endure fixed abrasive put on when the hip strikes. Research have proven that hip prostheses that include metallic and plastic elements expertise heavier put on than metal-only prostheses. Microplastics may kind contained in the physique as these plastic elements degrade over time, he says.
What this implies for well being remains to be unclear. If microplastics pose severe, long-term well being dangers, scientists want to seek out different supplies for such medical gear, Mandemaker says. However sufferers who want prostheses, dialysis or blood transfusions would most likely think about the dangers of microplastics a decrease precedence than addressing an pressing and extreme well being drawback, he says.
