Last year, the European Commission published a report on the results of legislation aimed at protecting animals used in scientific research. The main goal of this directive from 2013 was to reduce the suffering animals are exposed to…
Statistics collected by the European Commission indicate that the number of animals used in research is declining. This is the first report since the introduction of stricter rules on the use of animals for research purposes seven years ago. According to the obtained data, 9.39 million animals were used for scientific purposes in 2017, which is less than in 2015, when the number was 9.59 million. Although in 2016 the number of animals in experiments was higher than a year earlier, as many as 9.82 million, the report speaks of a positive trend of reducing the use of animals in research.
In the last year for which there are data (2017), animals were used in basic research in 45 percent of cases, while in applied research they were represented in about 23 percent. Almost a quarter of the animals, also 23 percent, were involved in testing drugs and other chemicals, and the rest were used in the study of new types of vaccines, research into learning processes or forensic examinations.
More than 60 percent of all animals used for research in 2017 were mice, 12 percent rats, 13 percent fish, while the share of birds in experiments was 6 percent. Dogs, cats and non-human primates accounted for 0.3 percent of the total. The law stipulates high standards when it comes to housing and care of animals, as well as testing methods that imply the least degree of pain and minimal use of animals.
Member countries were expected to send detailed data on animal experiments.
“This is the most comprehensive and precise approach to collecting and publishing data on experimental animals,”
He suggests it’s a model other countries should follow, though he notes the complex reporting requirements are a huge administrative burden for scientists and their organizations.
In addition to information on the number and types of animals used in scientific research, member states are now required to state how many times an animal has been used as a guinea pig, for what purpose, and how “cruel” the experimental procedure to which the animal was subjected was. The spokesperson of the European Commission believes that such detailed data “enables us to locate far more efficiently where resources should be directed in order to reduce the number of animals exposed to suffering”.
Older women with too little physical activity and at least 10 hours of sitting per day have cells that are on average 8 years older than cells of their peers who do not lead such a sedentary life. All this was discovered by scientists at the University of San Diego. The study they made was conducted on 1,500 women aged 64 to 95, and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
We already knew that too much time spent sitting increases the risk of various diseases and slows down the metabolism, but this new research has shown that inactivity and sitting also accelerate the aging process itself, which is an incredibly valuable discovery. Telomeres are the secret of aging. Telomeres, as structures at the ends of chromosomes, naturally shorten and fray as cells age. The discovery that telomere length is related to lifespan has already been awarded the Nobel Prize, so this research is a logical continuation based on that useful knowledge. According to this study, the chronological age of a person does not have to be related to his biological age, and that is why cells age faster, because they have shorter and shorter telomeres.
Faster shortening of telomeres is associated with cardiovascular diseases, various types of cancer and diabetes, and bad lifestyle habits such as obesity and smoking also contribute to their shortening. So, it has been shown that women who sit for 10 or more hours a day, and do not engage in physical activity of moderate to strong intensity for 40 minutes a day, accelerate their aging process by their own inaction. In this way, an average eight-year acceleration of the biological aging of cells is ensured, unlike that of their peers who lead a more physically active life. The University of San Diego has announced a new set of studies that will also study telomere length and the relationship to exercise and sitting in men and younger populations. Until then, while you wait for more evidence against sitting – just in case, move more, you won’t get any rest.
The impact of mental health on aging
A reliable source is a statistical model that measures a person’s biological age instead of chronological age. To achieve this, an aging clock has been devised that uses blood, genetic and DNA testing to measure a person’s biological rate of aging. Smoking is the main physical factor in this case. Mental health concerns include depression, sleep problems, loneliness and feelings of unhappiness.
The modern lifestyle, which brings with it inner psychological restlessness and anxiety, leads to less social contact and withdrawal. This is exactly the scenario that played out at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the consequences of the pandemic on human social life are present even today. The option to access social networks is often cited as an excuse, which is actually a double-edged sword. Sitting in front of a computer or phone screen every day only deepens a sedentary lifestyle, which leads to further alienation of a person from the environment.
Based on the conducted research, it was concluded that loneliness significantly affects the aging process. In addition, factors of the external environment that influence our mood determine our behavior and openness to others. It is desirable to control factors such as quality sleep, physical activity, a healthier way of eating, but also the living environment such as furniture orientation, hygiene and daylighting. Self-control of access to social networks or at least limitation of time spent at the computer is required.
Can pets prevent premature aging?
When human contact is not available, it can be useful to enjoy the presence of a furry friend. Doctors say owning a dog can help reduce the risk of premature death, especially among people who live alone, who are the group most at risk of debilitating loneliness. Previous research has also found that pet owners may have better social and communication skills and engage more in community activities.
Animals can be great conversation starters, and taking care of a pet, by taking it for a walk or to the vet, can discourage sedentarism as well as provide an opportunity to meet new people. If a larger animal, such as a dog or cat, seems too much of a commitment or too expensive, why not consider a small, mostly carefree and much cheaper alternative, such as fish, snails or insects?
Namely, older adults who in one experiment were offered crickets to care for as pets became less depressed and had improved cognitive functioning within 8 weeks of starting the experiment. Or, you can volunteer at an animal shelter or offer to babysit the pets of friends and acquaintances when they’re on vacation, so you can enjoy the same benefits and improve your social relationships.
Your parents often told you about your adventures when you were a child. Of course, you don’t remember it, just like the vast majority of people in the world don’t remember anything before their third birthday.
This phenomenon is called childhood amnesia, and it is still a puzzle for scientists. The fact that we don’t remember early experiences is somewhat paradoxical because in the first few years we acquire many complex skills “for life”, such as walking, talking and recognizing people’s faces. And yet, memories of certain childhood events are lost in adulthood. It’s as if someone tore the first few pages out of our autobiography.
What is the cause of childhood amnesia?
This question has plagued psychologists for more than a century, but we are finally uncovering the pieces of the puzzle. The first serious study of childhood amnesia was the work of French psychologists Victor and Catherine Henri in 1898. Spouses Henri, while talking to 123 adults, realized that their earliest autobiographical memories went back to the age of just over three years. These findings were later confirmed by numerous studies that indicate that the average age for the first memories is between three and three and a half years. However, there is a lot of variability: some people seem to remember events when they were only two years old, while others remember nothing before they were six or even eight years old. At the same time, those early memories are rather hazy.
How did Freud interpret the absence of early memories?
Serious attempts to explain the phenomenon of childhood amnesia began decades after the Henries published their research. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, reflected on the problem of childhood amnesia in his essay from 1905. At the same time, he concluded that we repress our childhood memories because they are full of sexual and aggressive impulses and are therefore too embarrassing to face in later life, reports Jutarnji.hr. However, that idea fell away over time, and the thesis was launched that young children simply cannot form explicit memories of events. The picture changed again in the 1980s, when the first studies of children themselves appeared instead of research on what adults remember from childhood. Thus, scientists have discovered that children younger than two or three years old can indeed recall autobiographical events, but that these memories fade. Then the question arose as to what causes their disappearance.
What did memory research in children show?
Canadian psychologist Carol Peterson from Memorial University in Newfoundland found in her research that children can remember traumatic experiences quite faithfully, even when they happened at a very early age. In a period of eight years, children could remember things that happened to them five years ago, that is, when they were three years old. But, prof. Peterson was also interested in whether eight-year-olds could remember ordinary events from early childhood. Her research from 2005 on 140 respondents showed that children under the age of nine have some memories of their first impressionable experiences. But the older the children, the fainter the memories. Thus, children from six to nine years old could recall events from the time when they were three years old. However, teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16 recalled only individual situations from when they were over four years old.
Two years later, Carol Peterson interviewed the same 140 respondents again. She asked them the same questions: What are their earliest memories? Of course, everything that the children mentioned was also checked by the parents. The results showed that only five of the 50 youngest children, who were between four and seven years old at the time of the first interview, could recall their earliest memories, even after being reminded of what they had said two years earlier.
“The memories just disappeared,” Carol Peterson told Live Science. On the other hand, 22 out of 61 children aged ten to 13 could recall the same memories from their earliest years as two years ago. Children over the age of ten were able to recall, after being reminded, almost all of their earliest memories. By that age, the earliest memories crystallize and those memories stay with us in adulthood.
Does childhood amnesia also exist in animals?
Neuroscientists led by Catherine Akers from Children’s Hospital in Toronto published a study in Science in 2014 that showed that mice also have their own version of childhood amnesia. It is similar with monkeys, our close relatives in the animal world. Scientists cite neurogenesis, the process of creating new neurons, as the main cause of our forgetting early events in childhood. Until the 1990s, the dogma reigned in science was that the number of nerve cells or neurons is determined at the moment of birth and that their number only decreases during life. But scientists have shown that our brain changes throughout life and that new neurons are created even later. One of the places of neurogenesis is the hippocampus, a structure in the brain that is involved in the creation of long-term memories. Neurogenesis in the hippocampus peaks during the first few years. Catherine Akers and her collaborators have shown in experiments on mice that the rapid creation of new neurons in the hippocampus blocks access to old memories.
Is the period of earliest memories the same in all cultures?
Scientists have realized that there are puzzling cross-cultural differences about the age of earliest memories. For example, in one cross-cultural study, researchers found that the average age of first memories for people of European descent was about 3.5 years, and for those of East Asian descent, 4.8 years. Among the Maori in New Zealand, that age is only 2.7 years. – Those differences cannot be explained only by the maturation of the brain – Patricia Bauer, professor of psychology from Emory University in Atlanta, told New Scientist.
Scientists believe that one of the explanations for this phenomenon is storytelling. Compared to East Asian parents, European and North American parents are more likely to discuss the past with their children using more complex forms of storytelling. As a result, their children have earlier memories. Maori storytelling culture is even richer, with detailed oral histories and a strong focus on the past, leading to even earlier memories.
When it comes to autobiographical memory, the early exchange of family memory is important. In North American culture, people are crazy about memoirs and reality TV. It’s all a life story. If society tells you that your memories are important, then you will remember them better – she told New Scientist prof. Ki Wang of Cornell University
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