Neuroscience
"It's all in the reflexes", Kurt Russell drawls in the 80s martial arts romp Big Trouble in Little China. He could be right - according to scientists in Scotland, people with quicker reactions are more likely to live longer.
Ian Deary and Geoff Der measured the IQ and reaction times of 898 people (average age 55 years) in 1988 and then noted which of them had died by 2002 (185 had). They also recorded information on each person's education, occupation and whether or not they smoked.
In 1988, being male, a smoker, and of lower social class were all independent significant predictors of the likelihood of dying before 2002. But even when these factors were controlled for, having lower IQ and slower reactions were also significant predictors of the likelihood of dying, roughly equivalent to the difference made by whether one smoked or not. Reaction time seemed to be the crucial factor here - IQ and reactions correlated, and when reactions were controlled for, IQ no longer predicted the likelihood of dying.
But in our modern world of settees and coffee shops, why should having faster reactions increase your life expectancy? "These variables might...constitute a simple... indicator of the organism's integrity, and of clinical and subclinical pathology" the authors said.
But what about a study started in 1932 that showed 11-year-old children's IQ predicted their mortality 70 years later? Surely IQ wasn't revealing latent pathology at that age? Perhaps, the authors said, "...even at that age lower IQ relates to earlier death partly because it is a reflection of a body with suboptimal physical integrity".
__________________________________
Deary, I.J. & Derr, G. (2005). Reaction time explains IQ's association with death. Psychological Science, 16, 64-69.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Why Do More Intelligent People Live Longer?
By guest blogger Stuart Ritchie It’s always gratifying, as a psychologist, to feel like you’re studying something important. So you can imagine the excitement when it was discovered that intelligence predicts life expectancy. This finding is now supported...
- The Sorry Souls Who Danced Til They Dropped, Literally
No matter how much of a raver you are, the idea of dancing and dancing until death by exhaustion no doubt sounds horrific. Tragically, that's exactly what happened to several victims of the dancing plague in Strasbourg in 1518. John Waller, who's...
- Violent Video Games Slow Our Processing Of Happy Faces
Just 15 minutes playing a violent video game can lend a negative bias to the way we interpret people's facial expressions. Steven Kirsh and Jeffrey Mounts at SUNY-Guneseo in New York asked 197 students to play either 15 minutes of the violent House...
- Fda: Insomnia Drug Approval
From the FDA: For Immediate Release: Nov. 23, 2011 FDA approves first insomnia drug for middle-of-the-night waking followed by difficulty returning to sleep [snippet] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Intermezzo (zolpidem tartrate sublingual...
- Neuropsychology Abstract Of The Day: Cognitive Function In 95-year-olds
Börjesson-Hanson A, Gustafson D, & Skoog I. Five-year mortality in relation to dementia and cognitive function in 95-year-olds. Neurology. 2007 Nov 27; 69(22): 2069-2075. Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology Unit, Psychiatry Section, Institute of Neuroscience...
Neuroscience
Testing times
"It's all in the reflexes", Kurt Russell drawls in the 80s martial arts romp Big Trouble in Little China. He could be right - according to scientists in Scotland, people with quicker reactions are more likely to live longer.
Ian Deary and Geoff Der measured the IQ and reaction times of 898 people (average age 55 years) in 1988 and then noted which of them had died by 2002 (185 had). They also recorded information on each person's education, occupation and whether or not they smoked.
In 1988, being male, a smoker, and of lower social class were all independent significant predictors of the likelihood of dying before 2002. But even when these factors were controlled for, having lower IQ and slower reactions were also significant predictors of the likelihood of dying, roughly equivalent to the difference made by whether one smoked or not. Reaction time seemed to be the crucial factor here - IQ and reactions correlated, and when reactions were controlled for, IQ no longer predicted the likelihood of dying.
But in our modern world of settees and coffee shops, why should having faster reactions increase your life expectancy? "These variables might...constitute a simple... indicator of the organism's integrity, and of clinical and subclinical pathology" the authors said.
But what about a study started in 1932 that showed 11-year-old children's IQ predicted their mortality 70 years later? Surely IQ wasn't revealing latent pathology at that age? Perhaps, the authors said, "...even at that age lower IQ relates to earlier death partly because it is a reflection of a body with suboptimal physical integrity".
__________________________________
Deary, I.J. & Derr, G. (2005). Reaction time explains IQ's association with death. Psychological Science, 16, 64-69.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Why Do More Intelligent People Live Longer?
By guest blogger Stuart Ritchie It’s always gratifying, as a psychologist, to feel like you’re studying something important. So you can imagine the excitement when it was discovered that intelligence predicts life expectancy. This finding is now supported...
- The Sorry Souls Who Danced Til They Dropped, Literally
No matter how much of a raver you are, the idea of dancing and dancing until death by exhaustion no doubt sounds horrific. Tragically, that's exactly what happened to several victims of the dancing plague in Strasbourg in 1518. John Waller, who's...
- Violent Video Games Slow Our Processing Of Happy Faces
Just 15 minutes playing a violent video game can lend a negative bias to the way we interpret people's facial expressions. Steven Kirsh and Jeffrey Mounts at SUNY-Guneseo in New York asked 197 students to play either 15 minutes of the violent House...
- Fda: Insomnia Drug Approval
From the FDA: For Immediate Release: Nov. 23, 2011 FDA approves first insomnia drug for middle-of-the-night waking followed by difficulty returning to sleep [snippet] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Intermezzo (zolpidem tartrate sublingual...
- Neuropsychology Abstract Of The Day: Cognitive Function In 95-year-olds
Börjesson-Hanson A, Gustafson D, & Skoog I. Five-year mortality in relation to dementia and cognitive function in 95-year-olds. Neurology. 2007 Nov 27; 69(22): 2069-2075. Neuropsychiatric Epidemiology Unit, Psychiatry Section, Institute of Neuroscience...