People can express emotions, such as happiness or sadness or anger, in two ways — through mere sounds (vocalisation) or through words (language). Does the brain respond to these two modes of emotional expressions with the same speed and equal priority? Do certain emotions get responses faster when vocalised because it makes a larger impact on the brain? Recently, Marc Pell and his team at McGill addressed these questions, using an EEG. Anger leaves longer traces, especially for those who are anxious. And anxious individuals have a faster and more heightened response to emotional voices than people who are less anxious. Overall, vocalisations appear to have the advantage of delivering meaning in a more immediate way than speech (it takes only one-tenth of a second!). Why is this so? “The identification of vocalised emotions depends on systems in the brain that are older in evolutionary terms,” said Marc Pell, “Understanding emotions expressed in spoken language, on the other hand, engages more recent brain systems that have evolved as human language developed.”

SNEAK PEEK

1. First came feathers

Feathers came first, then birds. Some dinosaurs, flying reptiles and their ancestors had feather-like coverage. Feathers probably arose to speed up body insulation. Who proposed that the other functions of feathers, for display and of course for flight, came much later?

1. Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol’

2. Man-eating lions

More than a century ago the “man-eating lions of Tsavo” terrorised a camp in Kenya. Today, lions seldom hunt people but as human populations continue to grow and the numbers of prey species decline, man-eating may become an option for lions. Who suggested this?

2. Larisa DeSantis (Vanderbilt University)

3. Books still score off

Young people may still prefer curling up with a paper book over their e-reader — even more so than their older counterparts! This is because legally owned online material can’t provide the psychological ownership (‘What is mine’) afforded by physical objects. Who found it?

3. Sabrina Helm, a consumer behaviour expert

4. That yellow is salt

The yellow colour visible on parts of the surface of Europa (Jupiter’s moon) turned out to be sodium chloride — table salt! “It is a bit like invisible ink. Before irradiation, you can’t tell it’s there, but after irradiation, the colour jumps right out at you.” Who explained it this way?

4. Kevin Hand (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

5. Grasping a cup

Simply grasping a coffee cup or reaching for a spoon needs fine motor coordination with the highest precision. More nerve cells populate the red nucleus (a region of the midbrain that controls fine motor movement), the more your grasping is practised. Who studied it?

5. Prof. Kelly Tan and team (University of Base)

6. Which will go first?

Understanding which species and ecosystems would be most severely affected by global warming is crucial to conservation. Who made the discovery that marine species are being eliminated from their habitats by warming temperatures twice as often as land species?

6. Malin Pinsky (Rutgers University, New Brunswick)

7. Clue in the joints

The knuckle joints of orang-utans are consistent with flexing the knuckles as they grasp branches; those of chimpanzees and gorillas are consistent with knuckle-walking. Who said this will tell us whether ancient humans were swinging from trees or walking on the ground?

7. SAC PhD student Christopher Dunmore

8. Cannabis in a ritual

Some people burnt cannabis at rituals commemorating the dead. Psychoactive compounds were found in 2,500-year-old funerary incense burners at the Jirzankal Cemetery (western China) — the earliest clear evidence of the use of cannabis. Who studied the burners?

8. Nicole Boivin and team (Max Planck Institute)

9. The ark won’t work!

It is believed that Noah took two of every kind of land animal in his Ark. If we reduce population sizes, then we’re going to have less “fodder for evolution” — and less chance to have the rare genetic variation required for evolution. Who implied that Noah’s Ark won’t work?

9. University of Vermont biologist Reid Brennan

QUIZ No. 907

1. Who computed that even a very small increase in temperature can be fatal to kangaroos?

– Daniel Simberloff
– E.G. Ritchie & E.E. Bolitho
– Lawrence B. Slobodkin

1. E.G. Ritchie & E.E. Bolitho

2. Which expert suggested that prehistoric bakers produced so much more than just bread?

– Andreas G. Heiss
– Marjorie Harness Goodwin
– Yolanda Murphy

2. Andreas G. Heiss

3. Bacteria causing gum inflammation can move from the mouth to the brain. Who found it?

– Dr Piotr Mydel
– Charles Jules Henri Nicolle
– Selman A. Waksman

3. Dr Piotr Mydel

4. Who inspired the character of the old countess in ‘The Queen of Spades’ by A. Pushkin?

– Natalya Golitsyna
– Alexandra Alexandrovna
– Vera Konstantinovna

4. Natalya Golitsyna

5. In a base-5 system, the numbers are 0 to 4, 10 to 14 and so on. Which language uses it?

– Maybrat (Papuan)
– Stellingwarfs (Netherlands)
– Ndyuka (French Guiana)

5. Maybrat (Papuan)