Young children can spot a lie

Childhood is a time when young minds are continually exposed to new information through conversations, books and the media. Much of the information they receive is factual (e.g., the names of the planets), but some information is not true and represents non-existent entities (e.g., the tooth fairy). It was previously thought that children believe most of what they hear. A new research, however, reveals that by the age of four, children are able to determine whether something is real or imaginary based on information that related the thing to a familiar entity. The finding was based on the study of 400 children between three and six years of age. The study was conducted by researchers at the Universities of Texas and Virginia and published in the journal Child Development.

Smoking spurs drinking

A new research using nationally representative data from the US finds that smoking — particularly among adolescents — “primes” the brain for subsequent addiction to alcohol and possibly other drugs. This finding goes beyond the popular view that smoking and drinking to excess tend to “go together”, especially during adolescence. “It seems that smoking makes the adolescent brain more vulnerable to other addictions,” the researchers write in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. “Addictive drugs act on the brain’s ‘central reward circuitry’. Once this is exposed to one drug, the brain may become more sensitive to the effects of other drugs.”

Goodbye to egg allergy

Children who were allergic to eggs were able to essentially overcome their allergy by gradually consuming increased quantities of eggs over time, researchers at Duke University and University of Arkansas have found in a small pilot study. “Participants who took a daily dose of egg product over the two-year study period were able to build up their bodies’ resistance to the point where most of them could eat two scrambled eggs without a reaction,” the researchers report in the journal Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The therapy is based on a process called “desensitisation” that aims to induce complete or near-complete tolerance to allergens.

Eyes don’t play tricks

People are fooled by magic tricks, even if their eyes see past the illusion, according to a neuroscientist at the University of Durham, UK. The tricks work by distorting our perception, even though they do not fool our eyes, the researcher writes in the journal Current Biology. The study demonstrates that the brain pathways for eye movement and perception operate independently.