Human cells respond in healthy, unhealthy ways to different kinds of happiness

Human bodies recognize at the molecular level that not all happiness is created equal, responding in ways that can help or hinder physical health, according to new research led by Barbara L. Fredrickson, Kenan Distinguished Professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The sense of well-being derived from “a noble purpose” may provide cellular health benefits, whereas “simple self-gratification” may have negative effects, despite an overall perceived sense of happiness, researchers found. “A functional genomic perspective on human well-being” was published July 29 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

“Philosophers have long distinguished two basic forms of well-being: a ‘hedonic’ [hee-DON-ic] form representing an individual’s pleasurable experiences, and a deeper ‘eudaimonic,’ [u-DY-moh-nick] form that results from striving toward meaning and a noble purpose beyond simple self-gratification,” wrote Fredrickson and her colleagues.

It’s the difference, for example, between enjoying a good meal and feeling connected to a larger community through a service project, she said. Both give us a sense of happiness, but each is experienced very differently in the body’s cells.

“We know from many studies that both forms of well-being are associated with improved physical and mental health, beyond the effects of reduced stress and depression,” Fredrickson said. “But we have had less information on the biological bases for these relationships.”

Collaborating with a team from the University of California at Los Angeles  led by Steven W. Cole, professor of medicine, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Fredrickson and her colleagues looked at the biological influence of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being through the human genome. They were interested in the pattern of gene expression within people’s immune cells.

Past work by Cole and colleagues had discovered a systematic shift in gene expression associated with chronic stress, a shift “characterized by increased expression of genes involved in inflammation” that are implicated in a wide variety of human ills, including arthritis and heart disease, and “decreased expression of genes involved in … antiviral responses,” the study noted. Cole and colleagues coined the phrase “conserved transcriptional response to adversity” or CTRA to describe this shift. In short, the functional genomic fingerprint of chronic stress sets us up for illness, Fredrickson said.

But if all happiness is created equal, and equally opposite to ill-being, then patterns of gene expression should be the same regardless of hedonic or eudaimonic well-being. Not so, found the researchers.

Eudaimonic well-being was, indeed, associated with a significant decrease in the stress-related CTRA gene expression profile. In contrast, hedonic well-being was associated with a significant increase in the CTRA profile. Their genomics-based analyses, the authors reported, reveal the hidden costs of purely hedonic well-being. 

Fredrickson found the results initially surprising, because study participants themselves reported overall feelings of well-being. One possibility, she suggested, is that people who experience more hedonic than eudaimonic well-being consume the emotional equivalent of empty calories. “Their daily activities provide short-term happiness yet result in negative physical consequences long-term,” she said. 

“We can make ourselves happy through simple pleasures, but those ‘empty calories’ don’t help us broaden our awareness or build our capacity in ways that benefit us physically,” she said. “At the cellular level, our bodies appear to respond better to a different kind of well-being, one based on a sense of connectedness and purpose.”

The results bolster Fredrickson’s previous work on the effects of positive emotions, as well as research linking a sense of connectedness with longevity. “Understanding the cascade to gene expression will help inform further work in these areas,” she added.

Fredrickson collaborated with Karen M. Grewen, associate professor of psychiatry in UNC’s School of Medicine; and Kimberly A. Coffey, research assistant professor, and Sara B. Algoe, assistant professor, both of psychology, in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Note: Fredrickson may be reached at blf@unc.edu.

News Services contact: Kathy Neal, interim health and science editor, (919) 740-5673 (cell/vmail) or kcneal@unc.edu.

Alphasat I-XL – a quantum leap for satellite communications

Alphasat I-XL lifts off on an Ariane 5 launcher,
Credit: Arianespace

Everyday life is dominated by information. Constantly growing volumes of data have to be transported around the globe. Satellite telecommunications play an important role in ensuring that such data reaches its destination reliably. Advanced German technology is playing its part in this on board Alphasat I-XL, the largest European Space Agency (ESA) telecommunications satellite to date, which lifted off on an Ariane 5 launcher from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on 25 July 2013 at 21:54 (CEST). From an altitude of about 36,000 kilometres above the Earth, the giant satellite is expected to revolutionise broadband communication over the next 15 years, offering over 750 L-Band channels in the mobile communications spectrum.

Artist's impression of Alphasat I-XL, Credit: Corvaja/ESA

Alphasat I-XL is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between ESA and Inmarsat, a global operating company for mobile satellite communication services. It is because of this PPP that the satellite has the 'I' in its name. 'XL' refers to the fact that Alphasat is the largest telecommunications satellite ever built in Europe. Several goals are being pursued simultaneously with the Alphasat development programme, under ESA's ARTES 8 satellite programme. Through the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Space Administration, Germany is the second largest contributor to this project, with a 14 percent share.

German technology in geostationary orbit

The newly developed 'Alphabus' satellite platform introduces a promising European product line for the market in large satellites – with a launch mass of up to 8.8 tons. Alphabus was developed in Toulouse under French leadership by prime contractors EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. German suppliers also made significant contributions to the construction of the satellite platform, making Germany the second largest financial contributor to the Alphabus development programme as well. "The German elements ensure that Alphasat I-XL will be transferred into geostationary orbit, are responsible for aspects of attitude and orbit control and provide electrical power to the satellite," says Gerd Gruppe, DLR Executive Board Member responsible for the German Space Administration.

The solar generator was developed and built by EADS Astrium in Ottobrunn, and provides 12 kilowatts of power for Alphasat I-XL. With four panels on both the north and south sides of the satellite, its span of almost 40 metres is longer than the wingspan of the Airbus A320. "To generate this amount of power, new, larger panels were needed; these were developed in Ottobrunn, with contributions from Munich-based company GKN Aerospace. The solar generator was designed from the outset so that it could supply even larger versions of the Alphabus, with a maximum capacity of 22 kilowatts," says Anke Pagels-Kerp from the DLR Space Administration.

The propulsion system for the transfer to geostationary orbit and engines for attitude and orbit control were manufactured by EADS Astrium in Lampoldshausen. As is standard practice with telecommunication satellites, Alphasat was delivered into a geostationary transfer orbit by the launcher. To reach its target position in geostationary orbit at an altitude of around 36,000 kilometres, the satellite needs an onboard chemical propulsion system.

The fuel tanks for the chemical propulsion system, which have a capacity of around 2000 litres, are also of German design. Augsburg company MT Aerospace succeeded in manufacturing the largest tanks ever built for a telecommunications satellite. The reaction wheels that control the orientation of the satellite were built by Rockwell Collins in Heidelberg.

Alphasat – a platform for testing new technologies

In addition to the commercial payload from Inmarsat, Alphasat I-XL has additional space for innovative technologies that will be tested under the conditions found in geostationary orbit for the first time. Of the four payloads flying on Alphasat for demonstration purposes, two come from Germany. One is an innovative star sensor built by Jena Optronik, which provides extremely accurate orbit and attitude information for the satellite; as it does so, it supports the precise orientation of the laser communication terminal, the second demonstration payload from Germany. The optical Laser Communication Terminal (LCT) was developed under the leadership of Tesat, from Backnang, under contract to DLR, as part of the preparation for a new data highway in space – the European Data Relay System (EDRS).

Light instead of radio waves - laser enables faster data transfer

Transferring the massively increasing volumes of data between satellites and Earth is presenting ever-greater challenges to engineers. So far, they have been able to continually increase data transfer speeds by using higher radio frequencies and new electronic systems. Radio technology has its limitations; only a certain number of frequencies are available, and many of these are already being used. However, by switching from radio waves to much higher frequency laser light, these restrictions can be avoided; this will enable data streams to be transported much faster in the future. "The development in laser data transfer is a quantum leap in satellite communication. Germany saw the significance of this technology early on and has been encouraging it from the start. This is now bearing fruit; Tesat, a German company, is now the global market leader in this segment," explains Gruppe. This development did not just happen. Laser transfer systems have been tested on satellites for a number of years. In 2007, the German Earth observation satellite TerraSAR-X succeeded in using a LCT to exchange data with the American NFIRE satellite at a rate of 5.6 gigabits per second over a distance of 5000 kilometres – this corresponds to transferring a data volume equivalent to 400 DVDs per hour.

Preparing for a new data highway

A modified LCT is being used on Alphasat; it is capable of transporting a reduced data volume of 1.8 gigabits per second – corresponding to 130 DVDs per hour – but over a much greater distance of 45,000 kilometres. This makes it possible to transfer data between satellites in low Earth orbit, at an altitude of 200 to 2000 kilometres, and those in geostationary orbit, at an altitude of around 36,000 kilometres. The LCT on Alphasat I-XL will be used to test data transfer between geostationary and low Earth orbits.

Europe's largest telecommunication satellite will receive data from the two European Earth observation satellites Sentinel 1A and Sentinel 2A in this way. "With demonstration technology 'made in Germany', Alphasat I-XL is the gateway to the EDRS – an information highway in space along which data can be exchanged between satellites around the clock," explains Gruppe. A company called Tesat-Spacecom is taking a leading role in the development of this new transfer method. It built the LCT for Alphasat I-XL, in collaboration with DLR and Swiss company RUAG. The development of the LCT was supported by the DLR Space Administration.

Contact

Elisabeth Mittelbach
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Communications
Space Administration
Tel.: +49 228 447-385
Fax: +49 228 447-386
mailto:Elisabeth.Mittelbach@dlr.de 

Dr. Anke Pagels-Kerp
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Space Administration, Satellite Communications
Tel.: +49 228 447-382
mailto:anke.pagels@dlr.de 

New nuclear fuel-rod cladding could lead to safer power plants

A substitute for traditional zircaloy could greatly reduce the danger of hydrogen explosions

CAMBRIDGE, Mass- In the aftermath of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was initially driven into shutdown by the magnitude 9.0 quake; its emergency generators then failed because they were inundated by the tsunami. But the greatest damage to the complex, and the greatest release of radiation, may have been caused by explosions of hydrogen gas that built up inside some of the reactors.

That hydrogen buildup was the result of hot steam coming into contact with overheated nuclear fuel rods covered by a cladding of zirconium alloy, or “zircaloy” — the material used as fuel-rod cladding in all water-cooled nuclear reactors, which constitute more than 90 percent of the world’s power reactors. When it gets hot enough, zircaloy reacts with steam to produce hydrogen, a hazard in any loss-of-coolant nuclear accident.

A team of researchers at MIT is developing an alternative that could provide similar protection for nuclear fuel, while reducing the risk of hydrogen production by roughly a thousandfold. Tests of the new cladding material, a ceramic compound called silicon carbide (SiC), are described in a series of papers appearing in the journal Nuclear Technology.

“We are looking at all sides of the issue, regarding replacing the metallic cladding with ceramic,” says Mujid Kazimi, the TEPCO Professor of Nuclear Engineering at MIT, who is senior author of the papers. Because of the harsh environment fuel rods are exposed to — heat, steam, and neutrons that emanate from nuclear reactions — extensive further testing will be needed on any new cladding for use in commercial reactors, Kazimi says.

SiC is “very promising, but not at the moment ready for adoption” by the nuclear industry, he adds.

Other groups have suggested the use of SiC for cladding, but the material had never been subjected to the detailed tests and simulations that the MIT team carried out. Kazimi and his colleagues not only tested the material’s response under normal operating conditions, with temperatures of 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit), but also under the more extreme conditions of an accident, with temperatures up to 1500 C (2732 F).

Nuclear fuel rods are made of hundreds of small pellets of enriched uranium placed end-to-end inside hollow tubes of zircaloy that are about a half-inch across. The tubes are filled with inert helium gas to improve the heat conduction from the pellets to cladding that is cooled by the water that circulates outside the tubes. These tubes are then packed together in bundles that are inserted into the reactor core, where they heat water to produce steam to drive a turbine generator to produce electricity.

To test SiC cladding under normal operating conditions, the MIT team used a three-layer cladding design that features a middle layer made of a composite of SiC fibers reinforced with more SiC. The tubes were tested inside MIT’s research reactor in special loops that replicate the coolant temperature and chemistry conditions in large power reactors.

The irradiation apparatus was designed by MIT research scientist David Carpenter and research engineer Gordon Kohse. The effects of irradiation were studied by graduate student John Stempien and others, working with Kazimi. The results showed good strength retention during mechanical testing, Stempien says.

Graduate student Youho Lee and research scientist Tom McKrell conducted high-temperature oxidation studies on SiC. Under the extreme conditions of an accident, the corrosion rate was 100 to 1,000 times less than that of zircaloy. While zircaloy loses strength as temperature increases — becoming 2 percent weaker for every 10 C increase in temperature and losing all strength at about 1300 C, Stempien says — the strength of the SiC ceramic remains essentially constant to temperatures well above 1500 C.

The potential advantages of SiC cladding extend beyond reducing the risks in an accident, Kazimi explains. Because SiC reacts slowly with water, even under normal conditions it degrades less and can remain in a reactor core longer. That could allow reactor operators to squeeze extra energy out of fuel rods before refueling: The rods are typically replaced after four or five years in a reactor, and degradation of the cladding is a major limitation on their longevity.

In addition, the ability to leave fuel rods in place longer would reduce the spent fuel produced by each reactor, resulting in less volume for disposal, Kazimi says.

There are still further tests to be done: In particular, while zircaloy tubes can have their ends capped by welding a metal disk onto each end, ceramic can’t be welded, so a suitable bonding agent will need to be found. “We need to join the ceramic to ceramic in a way that can withstand the conditions in the nuclear core,” Kazimi says. “That’s not as perfected a science as it is for metals.” Other details, such as the optimal thickness of the tubes for durability and for heat transfer, also need to be determined.

In addition, the material needs to be tested further to determine its response to various stresses. “The fracture behavior is different,” co-author Lee says. In particular, while metal deforms predictably under pressure, a ceramic tends to fracture in a way that is “more statistical,” he says: It can only be predicted as a statistical likelihood of certain failure modes.Written by David Chandler, MIT News Office

http://www.mit.edu/

Deciphering the Air-Sea Communication

Marine scientists are decoding the mechanism for long-term climate fluctuations in the Atlantic

25 July 2013 / Kiel / Moscow. Why does hurricane activity vary from decade to decade? Or rainfall in the Sahel region? And why are the trans-Atlantic changes frequently in sync? A German-Russian research team has investigated the role of heat exchange between ocean and atmosphere in long-term climate variability in the Atlantic. The scientists analyzed meteorological measurements and sea surface temperatures over the past 130 years. It was found that the ocean significantly affects long term climate fluctuations, while the seemingly chaotic atmosphere is mainly responsible for the shorter-term, year-to-year changes. The study appears in the current issue of the prestigious journal Nature, and provides important information on the predictability of long-term climate fluctuations.

Zeitliche Entwicklung der Meeresoberflächentemperatur
 (blau) und des Wärmeflusses (rot) im Nordatlantik von 1880 bis 2010.
Grafik: C. Kersten, GEOMAR

How do the ocean and atmosphere communicate? What information do they exchange, and what are the results? These are questions that climate scientists must ask, especially if they want to understand the cause of natural climate fluctuations of varying duration. These fluctuations superimpose the general global warming trend since the beginning of industrialization and thus complicate the accurate determination of human influence on the climate. The causes and mechanisms of natural climate variability, however, are poorly understood. A study led by scientists at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel shows that the ocean currents influence the heat exchange between ocean and atmosphere and thus can explain climate variability on decadal time scales. The study, which appears in the current issue of the renowned journal Nature, also references the potential for predicting such phenomena.

Untersuchungsgebiet im Nordatlantik, Temperaturdaten stammen
aus dem dunkelblauen, Wärmeflussdaten aus dem roten Gebiet.
Grafik: C. Kersten, GEOMAR.

The presumption of such predictability potential has been around for more than half a century. In 1964, the Norwegian climate researcher Jacob Bjerknes postulated different causes of climate variability on different time scales. While the atmosphere is mainly causing climate variations on shorter time scales, from months to years, the longer-term fluctuations, such as those on decadal time scales, are primarily determined by the ocean. The first part of this hypothesis has been well studied by now, but the second part still required some verification. "In the current study, we can utilize a new analysis of shipboard measurements, taken since the end of the 19th century, to verify the second part of the Bjerknes hypothesis," says Prof. Mojib Latif of GEOMAR, co-author of the study. "In particular, for the long-term climate variability in the Atlantic sector, the Gulf Stream circulation is of vital importance," said Latif.
Ocean currents affect the surface temperature of the oceans and thus the heat exchange with the atmosphere - eventually causing climate variations on the adjacent continents. The most evident is an oscillation with a period of 60 years. "Such decadal climate fluctuations are superimposed on the general warming trend, so that at times it seems as if the warming trend slowed or even stopped. After a few decades, it accelerates once again,” explains Prof. Latif. “It is important for us to understand these natural cycles, so that we can finally provide better climate predictions as well." One of the major problems, as Latif explained, is that there are just very few long-term oceanic measurements, thereby complicating the analysis and interpretation of climate change signals. Therefore, scientists are using increasingly refined statistical methods to extract more and more information from the available data sets.

"We need both, realistic model simulations and long-term data records, and really sophisticated analysis methods to produce reliable climate predictions. Our work is an additional piece in the giant puzzle of global climate variability, but I am confident that we will be able to extract the secrets underlying the natural climate fluctuations," says Prof. Latif.

Additional information:

The paper is the result of a joint co-operative work between GEOMAR and P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Science.

This study was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under KE 1471/2-1 and by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science through the Special Grant for establishing excellence at Russian Universities, No. 11.G34.31.0007. We also benefited from the contracts 2011-16-420-1-001 and 11.519.11.6034 with the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.

The original publication:

Gulev, S.K., M. Latif, N.S. Keenlyside, W. Park, K.P. Koltermann, 2013: North Atlantic Ocean Control on Surface Heat Flux at Multidecadal Timescales. Nature, 499, 464-467, doi: 10.1038/nature12268  

Links:

www.geomar.de GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel

www.sail.msk.ruP.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Mojib Latif, Phone: +49-431 600 4050, mlatif@geomar.de

Dr. Andreas Villwock (GEOMAR, Communication & Media), Phone: +49-431 600 2802, avillwock@geomar.de

GEOMAR
Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel

Wischhofstr. 1-3, Geb. 4

24148 Kiel
GERMANY

Helmholtz Association funds 15 international research groups

The Helmholtz Association has selected 15 international research groups as part of a pilot project bringing together Helmholtz researchers with scientists from all over the world to research future-oriented projects. These Helmholtz International Research Groups will receive funding of up to €50,000 per year from the Association for the next three years and the same amount from the foreign partner institutions. The pilot project was very well received by the researchers: 79 groups applied, of which eight were chosen in the first selection round and seven in the second.

Complex research topics can no longer be tackled alone. The international exchange of knowledge and the shared use of infrastructure is a great asset in advancing scientific progress. The Helmholtz Association therefore constantly expands its cooperation with international partners. Helmholtz researchers already have a long and successful working relationship with partners in China and Russia, and the Helmholtz International Research Groups now allow the Association to work on joint research projects with partner institutions the world over that are not restricted to certain topics. The programme is an effective means for the participating Helmholtz Centres to consolidate existing contacts and set up new partnerships. Young researchers in particular stand to benefit by gaining valuable first experience of international teamwork.

The following Helmholtz International Research Groups were established at the beginning of this year:

1. Helmholtz International Research Group on the aerodynamic performance of joined-wing single aisle aircrafts:
Dr Frederik Blumrich, German Aerospace Center (DLR), and Dr Daniel New Tze How / Björn Nagel, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

2. Non-classical nanophotonic circuits for ultrafast single photon manipulation on chip:
Dr Wolfram Pernice, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Dr Alexander Korneev, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia.

3. Geodynamic evolution of the Neuquén Andes: Implications for geo-resources:
Dr Javier Quinteros / Prof. Stephan V. Sobolev, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – German Research Centre for Geosciences – GFZ, and Prof. Victor A. Ramos / Dr Ruben Somoza, CONICET, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

4. Climate-change and land-use change interactions and feedback (CLUCIE):
Prof. Almut Arneth, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Prof. Benjamin Smith, Lund University, Sweden.

5. Climate-change adaptation options in Santiago de Chile and other Latin American megacities – urban vulnerability on the local level:
Dr Kerstin Krellenberg, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), and Dr Felipe Link, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Chile.

6. Dopant mapping and side wall characterization of III-V semiconductor nanowires for solar cell applications by scanning tunnelling microscopy:
Prof. Rafal Dunin-Borkowski, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and Dr Bruno Grandidier, Institut d’Electronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie, France.

7. Role of BMP signalling in neonatal chronic lung disease:
Dr Anne Hilgendorff, Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health, and Dr Edda Spiekerkoetter, Stanford University, USA.

8. Understanding of the gut microbiome in children at increased risk of type 1 diabetes:
Prof. Anette-Gabriele Ziegler, Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health, and Prof. Ramnik Xavier, The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, US.

9. Metabolism and Neurodegeneration: 
Dr Vanessa Schmidt, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, and Dr Mads Kjolby, Aarhus University, Denmark.

10. Microbial Symbionts of Arctic Peatlands and their Relevance for Present and Future Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling (ArcBiont):
Prof. Dirk Wagner / Dr Susanne Liebner, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – German Research Centre for Geosciences – GFZ, and Prof. Mette M. Svenning, University of Tromsø, Norway.

11. Helmholtz-Argentina Joint Research Group on Astroparticle Physics:
Prof. Johannes Blümer, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Prof. Alberto Etchegoyen, National University of General San Martín, Argentina.

12. Role of kinins in obesity:
Prof. Michael Bader / Dr Natalia Alenina, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, and Prof. Joao B. Pesquero, Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil.

13. Helmholtz International Research Group on Terrestrial Ecosystem and Resources Informatics (iTERI): 
Andreas Müller, German Aerospace Center (DLR), and Prof. Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, University of Alberta, Canada.

14. Scalable kinetic plasma simulation methods:
Prof. Paul Gibbon, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and Prof. Giovanni Lapenta, KU Leuven, Belgium.

15. Nanotechnology as a conceptual framework to analyse value creation processes beyond technology:
Prof. Ingrid Ott, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Prof. Robin Cowan, University of Strasbourg, France.

The Helmholtz Association contributes to solving major challenges facing society, science and the economy with top scientific achievements in six research fields: Energy; Earth and Environment; Health; Key Technologies; Structure of Matter; and Aeronautics, Space and Transport. With almost 36,000 employees in 18 research centres and an annual budget of approximately €3.8 billion, the Helmholtz Association is Germany’s largest scientific organisation. Its work follows in the tradition of the great natural scientist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894).

www.helmholtz.de
www.helmholtz.de/socialmedia

Contacts for the Media:

Janine Tychsen
Deputy Head Communications and Media Relations
Tel.: +49 30 206 329-24
janine.tychsen@helmholtz.de 

Communication and Media  
Office Berlin
Anna-Louisa-Karsch-Str. 2
10178 Berlin
Germany

Face Identification Accuracy is in the Eye (and Brain) of the Beholder, UCSB Researchers Say

Postdoctoral researcher Matthew Peterson, left
and Miguel Eckstein, professor in the
Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at UCSB

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Though humans generally have a tendency to look at a region just below the eyes and above the nose toward the midline when first identifying another person, a small subset of people tend to look further down — at the tip of the nose, for instance, or at the mouth. However, as UC Santa Barbara researchers Miguel Eckstein and Matthew Peterson recently discovered, “nose lookers” and “mouth lookers” can do just as well as everyone else when it comes to the split-second decision-making that goes into identifying someone. Their findings are in a recent issue of the journal Psychological Science.

“It was a surprise to us,” said Eckstein, professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, of the ability of that subset of “nose lookers” and “mouth lookers” to identify faces. In a previous study, he and postdoctoral researcher Peterson established through tests involving a series of face images and eye-tracking software that most humans tend to look just below the eyes when identifying another human being and when forced to look somewhere else, like the mouth, their face identification accuracy suffers.

When identifying someone, most humans tend to look first
just below the eyes, toward the midline of the face.
However, a small subset of people will tend to look lower.

The reason we look where we look, said the researchers, is evolutionary. With survival at stake and only a limited amount of time to assess who an individual might be, humans have developed the ability to make snap judgments by glancing at a place on the face that allows the observer’s eye to gather a massive amount of information, from the finer features around the eyes to the larger features of the mouth. In 200 milliseconds, we can tell whether another human being is friend, foe, or potential mate. The process is deceptively easy and seemingly negligible in its quickness: Identifying another individual is an activity on which we embark virtually from birth, and is crucial to everything from day-to-day social interaction to life-or-death situations. Thus, our brain devotes specialized circuitry to face recognition.

“One of, if not the most, difficult task you can do with the human face is to actually identify it,” said Peterson, explaining that each time we look at someone’s face, it’s a little different — perhaps the angle, or the lighting, or the face itself has changed — and our brains constantly work to associate the current image with previously remembered images of that face, or faces like it, in a continuous process of recognition. Computer vision has nowhere near that capacity in identifying faces, yet.

So it would seem to follow that those who look at other parts of a person’s face might perform less well, and might be slower to recognize potential threats, or opportunities.

Or so the researchers thought. In a series of tests involving face identification tasks, the researchers found a small group that departed from the typical just-below-the-eyes gaze. The observers were Caucasian, had normal or corrected to normal vision, and no history of neurological disorders — all qualities which controlled for cultural, physical, or neurological elements that could influence a person’s gaze.

But instead of performing less well, as would have been predicted by the theoretical analysis of the investigators, the participants were still able to identify faces with the same degree of accuracy as just-below-the-eyes lookers. Furthermore, when these nose-looking participants were forced to look at the eyes to do the identification, their accuracy degraded.

The findings both fascinate and set up a chicken-and-egg scenario for the researchers. One possibility is that people tailor their eye movement to the properties of their visual system — everything from their eye structures to the brain functions they are born with and develop. If, for example, one is able to see well in the upper visual field (the region above where they look), they can afford to look lower on the face without losing the detail around the eyes when identifying someone. According to Eckstein, it is known that most humans tend to see better in the lower visual field.

The other possibility is the reverse — that our visual systems adapt to our looking behavior. If at an early age a person developed the habit of looking lower on the face to identify someone else, their visual system over time brain circuits specialized for face identification could develop and arrange itself around that tendency.

“The main finding is that people develop distinct optimal face-looking strategies that maximize face identification accuracy,” said Peterson. “In our framework, an optimized strategy or behavior is one that results in maximized performance. Thus, when we say that the observer- looking behavior was self-optimal, it refers to each individual fixating on locations that maximize their identification accuracy.”

Future research will delve deeper into the mechanisms involved in those who look lower on the face to determine what could drive that gaze pattern and what information is gathered.

This work was funded by the National Eye Institute and the National Institute of Health.

Pictures: Courtesy

Note to Editors: For more information, contact Miguel Eckstein at (805) 893-2255, or by email at eckstein@psych.ucsb.edu; or Matthew Peterson at (805) 893-2791, or by email at peterson@psych.ucsb.edu

CSB Nobel Laureates Dispense Advice for Future Generations of Researchers

Alan Heeger,
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2000Credit: George Foulsham

(Santa Barbara, California) –– In an instant Monday night, a hush came over Hatlen Theater as UC Santa Barbara's Vice Chancellor for Research, Mike Witherell, joked about how quickly the packed auditorium quieted. Then, moderator Meredith Murr, UCSB's director of research development, introduced three of UCSB's Nobel laureates –– Alan Heeger, Finn Kydland, and Walter Kohn –– and summarized the works that won each of them the Nobel prize.
Heeger, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his role in the revolutionary discovery that plastics can have the properties of metals and semiconductors, a finding that created an important new field of research.

Kydland joined the faculty in July 2004, when he was appointed to the Henley Chair in Economics. That same year he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for research on business cycles and macroeconomic policy, specifically the driving forces behind business cycles and the time inconsistency of economic policy.

Finn Kydland,
Nobel Prize in Economics, 2004Credit: George Foulsham

A condensed matter theorist, Kohn, emeritus professor of physics and a research professor, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998 for his leading role in the development of density functional theory, which has revolutionized scientists' approach to the electronic structure of atoms, molecules, and solid materials in physics, chemistry, and materials science.

In a free, public event of the ongoing GRITtalk series, the three discussed how they came to the work that won them the Nobel prize, and when they realized it was groundbreaking in nature. They talked about their lives pre- and post-Nobel. They talked about risk, rejection and self-doubt. Yes, even Nobel laureates are human.

"It was very interesting to hear how these great people became who they are," said Aidan Herderschee, a participant in UCSB's Research Mentorship Program (RMP), a six-week summer research program for highly motivated high school students.

For an event with serious brainpower in evidence, levity was not absent. The audience laughed throughout the evening at amusing stories about the official Nobel call and other important life moments that the laureates shared.
According to Heeger, risk is part of the thrill of a life in science. "After the Nobel Prize, there was a period of time when I was hesitant to take a risk," he recalled. "It's okay to fall on your face when no one is looking. But I got over it. One should never lose one's nerve."

Walter Kohn,
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1998Credit: George Foulsham

But the most captivating part of the evening took the form of advice: that which the laureates received and that which they dispensed to the audience. "It's important to start with considerable exploration," said Kohn. "You'll stumble upon something you really love to do," Kydland said.

"It was quite interesting and I appreciate the advice for young people," said Ulrike Wabel, who was visiting Santa Barbara from Germany and saw the GRITtalk in a local paper's calendar section. "I will pass on their advice to my grandson," added fellow traveler Jan Schuleter.

The GRITtalk series is jointly sponsored by the RMP and the Summer Cultural and Enrichment Program. GRIT stands for groundbreaking research/innovative technology. The talks offer an opportunity to spend an evening with notable UCSB scholars, in this case three Nobel laureates.

"It was an honor to have them come and talk to us," said Andrew Milich, an RMP student from New York City. "I've read about the Nobels, but I never thought I'd get to see a Nobel laureate when I was so young."

The panel discussion was followed by a question-and-answer period. When Vijaya Dasari, an RMP student from Memphis, Tennessee, asked the Nobel laureates what the most groundbreaking discovery in their field was, Kohn had a succinct reply. "My field of research can be broad or narrow, but I can sum it up in two words: quantum theory," he said.

"It was really inspiring to hear the Nobel laureates," said Christabel Chan, a Canadian RMP student from Toronto, Ontario. "This is the kind of unique opportunity you don't get in any other summer program and that is why I came here."