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Issue 69
April 2008

Welcome to the 69th edition of Flash, our bi-weekly alert for science, health and medical journalists. Flash is a courtesy service with access to ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s online platform, providing full text access to some 2,000 scientific, technical and medical journals.

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ARTICLES

1. ASTHMA INHALERS – SUBSTANCE ABUSE AMONG ANTISOCIAL ADOLESCENTS?

There are approximately 20 million people in the US suffering from asthma and an estimated 40 million prescriptions were dispensed for asthma inhalers in 2006. As more cases are diagnosed and the distribution of inhalers grows, very few investigations have examined the prevalence and consequences of asthma inhaler abuse.

A study in Elsevier’s Drug and Alcohol Dependence takes a closer look at this trend and examines the adverse effects. More than 700 adolescents, all current members of the Missouri Division of Youth Services (residents committed to its care by the state’s 45 juvenile courts), were interviewed about whether or not they had asthma, if they had ever used an inhaler and if they had ever misused an inhaler.

Results revealed more than 26 percent had been diagnosed with asthma and 91.2 percent of those had received a prescription for an inhaler. 27 percent of those who had been prescribed an asthma inhaler reported intentionally using it to excess. Additionally, one-third of those surveyed said they had used an asthma inhaler without a prescription.

Getting “high” was a frequent reason cited for the misuse, and many abusers reported positive feelings of euphoria, relaxation and confidence during or immediately following inhaler use. Adverse reactions noted included feeling more dizzy, headaches, rapid heartbeat, anxiety, irritability and confusion.

Overall, this study suggests asthma inhaler misuse is prevalent in the adolescent population, particularly among antisocial teens. More must be learned about the habits, but this data indicates that the misuse of asthma inhalers should be considered a form of substance abuse, and adolescents should be monitored to see if a physical dependence develops.

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2. EVEN A THREE-YEAR-OLD KNOWS IF YOU ARE A GOOD TEACHER OR NOT

From culture, to language, to basic day-to-day tasks, a tremendous amount of what we learn is learned from other people. But that doesn’t necessarily mean our teachers are always right. Part of the challenge of learning is figuring out if someone is a credible source from whom to learn. New research in Elsevier’s Cognition illustrates that we begin distinguishing credible sources from not-so-credible sources early in life.

Researchers tested three- and four-year-olds on their ability to track an individual’s history of being accurate and inaccurate, and then how they used this information in subsequent learning. Tests used puppets to introduce the words for, and functions of, different objects. Initially, the puppets provided words and actions that were familiar to the children, but one of the puppets provided correct labels or functions, and the other wrong labels or functions.

Testing the children for a second time, the puppets introduced novel words and actions that were unfamiliar to the kids. The children tended to believe the puppet that provided the correct answers in the past, rather than relying on the information from the puppet that provided incorrect information in the past

These results reveal that three- and four-year-olds automatically keep track of others’ history of being accurate versus inaccurate. They are therefore more likely to learn new words and new object functions from someone who has been accurate in the past than from someone who showed signs of incompetence. This research shows that even at these young ages, children are sensitive to others’ mistakes and, quite impressively, not only use a person’s prior accuracy to decide who to learn from in the future, but do so spontaneously without any prompting.

Image of Ben the Puppet

Image of Jenny the Puppet 

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3. NEW UK STUDY REVEALS HIGH LEVELS OF INORGANIC ARSENIC IN BABY RICE CEREAL

Every parent knows one of the first foods introduced to a growing baby – after breast milk and formula of course – is rice. So UK mums and dads will not be happy to learn that the rice they’re serving their little one is likely to have surprisingly high levels of inorganic arsenic.

In a new study featured in Elsevier’s latest Environmental Pollution, scientists tested three common brands featured in typical UK supermarkets and discovered that the inorganic arsenic levels in pure baby rice ranged from 0.06 to 0.16, with a median of 0.11 mg/kg. To put this figure into perspective, 35 percent of the baby rice samples would be illegal for sale in China, which has a food standard limit of 0.15 mg/kg inorganic arsenic.

There is currently no European or US standard for inorganic arsenic levels in food, and outdated country specific regulations remain within the EU. For drinking standards, however, both Europe and the US have set modern standards of 0.01 mg/L for ‘total’ and ‘inorganic’ arsenic respectively – both assuming consumption of 1 L drinking water per day. For babies – with lower body weights – eating several 20g portions of baby rice a day could equate to a young child taking in three to four times the recommended arsenic consumption. Beyond rice, babies often eat other rice-based products in the form of crackers, biscuits, puffed cereals, pasta, noodles and puddings – which could further drive up the exposure.

The study concludes that the data presented should raise some eyebrows when it comes to the safety of arsenic levels in baby rice. An alternative approach to reducing infant exposure to arsenic is for parents to switch to other grain crops such as oat, barley, maize and wheat.

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4. WITH AGE COMES A SENSE OF PEACE AND CALM

Ah, to be young. For many, youth means strength and fun and excitement. But growing old does have its benefits too, and new research in Elsevier’s Social Science & Medicine indicates that with age comes a shift to both positive and passive emotions.

Researchers examined 1,450 responses to the 1996 General Social Survey, and specifically English-speaking persons aged 18 years and older living in the United States. They examined responses to questions focused on emotions.  For example, participants responded to statements such as “On how many days in the past seven days have you felt … that you couldn’t shake the blues, felt sad, felt calm, felt outraged, etc.” The researchers then grouped the emotions into four different groups: active, passive, negative and positive.

The results indicated that older age is associated with more passive emotions, but fewer negative emotions. This means that emotions that are both active and negative, like anxiety and anger, are especially unlikely among the elderly. The down side, however, is that older people tend to experience more bouts of depression compared to the middle-aged. Still, the positive/passive combination largely implies that contentment, calm and ease are some of the most common emotions older people feel.

Researchers also discovered that women scored significantly lower than men on both positive emotion balance and active emotion balance. It was also found that the well-educated and those with higher family incomes had significantly more positive emotions than the poor and poorly educated.

Click here for Graph showing correlation between different feelings

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5. SOCIAL CUES OR INCENTIVES – BOTH CAN BE KEY WHEN GETTING INDIVIDUALS TO WORK TOGETHER

Can’t we just all get along? Figuring out team dynamics can be tough. How can you get everyone to pitch in and work toward a common goal? What’s the secret?

A new study in Elsevier’s Evolution and Human Behavior constructs a social experiment to see how subtle social cues and incentives impact teamwork and cooperation. Using a specific class of mixed-motive games, the researchers focused on one game of ‘strategic complements’ and another of ‘strategic substitutes’. In the ‘strategic complements’ scenario, it is in the interest of a team member to exert more effort when the other partner exerts more. Conversely, in the ‘strategic substitutes’ scenario, it is in the best interest of a team member to decrease effort when the other increases effort. Clearly, the strategic complements scenario provides synergetic incentives – the other scenario does not.

What does all this mean? When performing a team task, coordination can be achieved by either presenting an objective incentive to cooperate, or by introducing subtle social cues signalling the potential benefit of long-term cooperation. When the incentive structure provides synergies and can be manipulated to work in everyone’s favour, subtle social cues are less important in obtaining mutual cooperation. However, when the incentive structure cannot be changed, social contact becomes essential in achieving cooperation. Using these findings and translating them in a work environment could be particularly useful when striving to deliver department and company goals.

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DISCLAIMER: The summaries of published papers in this email are intended to be read as accessible signposts towards the original abstracts and articles, which of course have been peer-reviewed. However, the summaries in this email have not been peer reviewed, nor have they been approved by the authors of the articles or their editors.
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1. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2008.01.022
2. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.12.008
3. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2008.01.0434
4. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.01.048
5. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.12.005