An international team of scientists, co-led by the UGR, discovers a new coral reef in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef—the first such discovery in 120 years

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Ángel Puga, a researcher at the UGR, is co-leading a geological and biological research campaign that is being conducted at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR)—the largest coral reef in the world. Geologists, biologists, and marine ecologists from various Australian universities and research centres are participating in the campaign

The primary aim of the campaign is to study the deep marine environment along the Cape York Peninsula, located at the northernmost tip of the GBR—one of the most remote and isolated regions of Australia

A researcher from the University of Granada (UGR) is co-leading a geological and biological research campaign that is being carried out at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR)—the largest coral reef in the world. Geologists, biologists, and marine ecologists from various Australian universities and research centres are participating in the campaign.

The research vessel Falkor has been the focal point of this expedition, starting out on September 30 and continuing until November 17.  The work is being funded by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, a not-for-profit organization devoted to advancing and disseminating knowledge about the world’s oceans. 

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions currently imposed, only a small number of researchers, all of whom are Australian, are physically allowed on board the vessel this year. However, a novel feature of the research is that a large proportion of the team is successfully operating remotely, thanks to the technical resources with which the Falkor is equipped. One such team member is Ángel Puga Bernabéu, a researcher at the UGR’s Department of Stratigraphy and Palaeontology, who is co-directing this campaign remotely from Granada.

Puga explains one particularly important new addition to the knowledge-base regarding the GBR: “On October 21, the Falkor discovered a new ‘detached’ reef, measuring 500 metres high off the seafloor. Its shallowest part, measuring 300 metres long and 50 wide, is located at a depth of about 40 metres [IMAGE 7].” This new reef is the first to be discovered in the GBR in 120 years. Furthermore, the images taken by the remotely-operated underwater vehicle (ROUV) show a tremendous diversity of benthic organisms (that is, those living on the seabed) and fish on this new reef.

The primary objective of the research campaign is to study the deep marine environment along Cape York Peninsula, located at the northernmost tip of the GBR—one of the most remote and isolated regions of Australia. Such environments in this region constitute one of the great mysteries for the scientific community, as the only information available to date has been gathered from disparate data obtained by other research vessels during their passage through these waters (just five in the last 12 years). For this reason, the area is considered a ‘frontier’ of scientific knowledge.

To shed light on the many unknowns that remain, the Falkor is carrying out extensive mapping of the seafloor using a high-resolution multibeam sonar. Coupled with the video images and biological, rock, and sediment samples obtained by the ROUV SuBastian (named after the Disney character from The Little Mermaid and making its 400th dive during this campaign), this mapping aims to answer some important geological questions. For example: What shape are the submarine canyons in this area and what activity is taking place there? Are there any ‘drowned’ reefs in the area? What is the origin of the extraordinary detached reefs? 

Submarine canyons are large underwater steep-sided valleys, similar to the valleys through which rivers flow on land. Just like rivers, submarine canyons transport loose materials along their channels, but, in this case, the material derives from the shallows located in the coastal areas and the continental slope. From there, sediment (along with associated nutrients and organic carbon) moves through the canyons and accumulates where they end, similar to deltas at the mouth of rivers.

So-called ‘drowned’ reefs are similar to the reefs of today, but they developed at a time when the sea level was much lower than it is now, for example, during the Last Glacial Maximum about 20,000 years ago, when the sea level was about 120 m lower than at present. With the progressive rise of the sea level, these reefs were submerged along with the biological communities that formed them, especially the corals—hence, ‘drowned’.

The identification of this type of reefs provides invaluable information with which to reconstruct the variations in sea level in the recent past. Furthermore, many of these reefs provide an important habitat for mesophotic reef communities (those that live at greater depths than the typical shallow waters).

Detached reefs are those that have become separated from the GBR a few kilometres from the edge of the shelf. Their origins are unclear but they may have developed on small fragments of the continent that broke away from the land due to tectonic shifts.

Fascinating discoveries

“At this stage in the campaign, we have already made some fascinating discoveries that point to several years of work ahead for scientists,” explains Puga. For example, researchers have successfully mapped the entire SwainSlide underwater landslide. This large displacement consists of reefs and sediments that fell away from the continental shelf and slid down the margin, about 250 km from the coast. 

“This landslide is about 10 kilometres wide and the loose material has travelled over 20 kilometres across the seafloor. The images taken in this campaign show huge blocks of intact material surrounded by many smaller blocks and debris [IMAGE 1],” says Puga.

Understanding what triggered this major underwater shift is of great scientific interest. Crucially, catastrophic events of this type can generate tsunamis that affect the entire coast in a matter of a few hours, as well as damaging underwater infrastructures such as communication cables or pipelines. Yet, both the walls of the scar left by the landslide and the detached blocks also provide an ideal environment for colonization by various different organisms.

The researchers have also observed rich marine ecosystems at the edge of the continental shelf at unexpected depths of over 100 m (IMAGE 2) and in deep marine environments on the walls and at the foot of underwater canyons. This shows that the tremendous ecological richness and diversity of the GBR are not restricted solely to the better-known shallow waters.

The cartography of the continental margin of the northernmost sector of the GBR has revealed the existence of submarine canyons that are much more complex than those located in the central sector and that present a different morphology (IMAGE 3). ROUV images suggest that many of these canyons have been active in relatively recent times. The rock and sediment samples obtained from the walls and channels of the canyons (IMAGES 4 and 5) will be used to extract information about their age and the characteristics of the material that is transported through them.

Among the more striking shapes and forms that have been observed in this area are the so-called plunge pools. These are large depressions, roughly semi-circular, that formed at the foot of a large escarpment (in this case, several hundred metres deep), similar to those that develop at the foot of waterfalls on the mainland (IMAGE 6). Their origins are still unknown. They may be ancient land-based waterfalls that are now submerged; they may have originated underwater; or they may be related to tectonic structures such as faults. 

Media enquiries:

Angel Puga Bernabéu

Department of Stratigraphy and Palaeontology, University of Granada

Tel.: +34 958 242721

Email: angelpb@ugr.es

New study warns of the stress experienced by pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic

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In other pandemics, stress has been found to affect both pregnant women and their developing babies

A new study now recommends that, in addition to routine medical check-ups, health professionals should also ask pregnant woman about their psychological well-being

There is consensus among studies dealing with natural disasters, such as famines, earthquakes, and pandemics, that the stress to which pregnant women are exposed during such crises has short and long-term consequences, both on their health and on that of their unborn babies. In light of this finding, and given the current COVID-19 pandemic, one researcher from the University of Granada (UGR) is recommending that, in addition to routine medical check-ups, pregnant women should undergo a psychological assessment, to reduce the potential risks of such stress.

The researcher in question is Rafael Caparrós González, Assistant Professor at the UGR and Head of the research project ‘Psychological and Social Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Pregnancy, Vertical Transmission of SARS-CoV-2, Foetal Development and Child Health’ (GESTACOVID). His recent findings have led him to publish two articles, in the Revista Española de Salud Pública (Spanish Journal of Public Health) and the Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology. 

Caparrós clarifies that, on the one hand, one must consider the direct impact of contagion with the SARS-CoV-2 virus (which is responsible for the COVID-19 disease) on the health of pregnant women; but, on the other, there are also indirect effects that pregnant women may suffer as a result of experiencing the uncertain circumstances associated with such pandemics.

“The current COVID-19 pandemic is giving rise to particular sources of stress for pregnant women. These include lockdown and social distancing, fear of catching the virus, financial problems due to job loss, or home-schooling of children under lockdown conditions. In some cases, pregnant women also have to deal with sharing their home with a potentially violent partner, which increases the risk of intimate-partner violence,” explains Caparrós González.

Assessing psychological well-being

Stressful circumstances are known to have a direct impact on the pregnant woman and her unborn baby. It is known that, for example, those babies who were exposed to the 1918 influenza (Spanish flu) virus during their foetal development were at greater risk of premature death in adulthood from diseases such acute myocardial infarction, of developing metabolic syndrome, or of being diagnosed with autism, schizophrenia, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. 

Both Caparrós and his colleagues Fiona Alderdice (scientist at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit of the University of Oxford, United Kingdom) and Miguel Ángel Luque Fernández (Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, and researcher at the Biohealth Research Institute in Granada, Spain) highlight the importance of taking special care of mental health at this time.

They recommend that pregnant women, in addition to the routine check-ups offered by midwives and obstetricians concerning their physical and medical health, receive an adequate psychological assessment to minimize any psychological risks to which they are exposed—and even more so during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Implementing such assessments would improve the health of pregnant women and therefore that of future generations, and is a practice that is already carried out in other countries, such as the United Kingdom.

“It is important to take care of mental health during pregnancy or the perinatal period, as psychological alterations can have repercussions on the physical health of the pregnant woman and her baby throughout their lives. Such alterations will affect both her and the baby she is carrying, and these are problems that will present over time,” warns Caparrós.

Bibliography:

Rafael A. Caparros-González & Miguel Ángel Luque-Fernández (2020), ‘Salud mental en el período perinatal y estrés materno durante la pandemia Covid-19: Influencia sobre el desarrollo fetal’, Revista Española de Salud Pública 94. Online: https://www.mscbs.gob.es/biblioPublic/publicaciones/recursos_propios/resp/revista_cdrom/VOL94/CARTA/RS94C_202009104es.pdf

Rafael A. Caparros-Gonzalez & Fiona Alderdice (2020), ‘The COVID-19 pandemic and perinatal mental health’, Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology. Online:

https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2020.1786910

Media enquiries:

Rafael A. Caparrós González

Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Granada

Email: rcg477@ugr.es 

Oysters produce a foam-like material in their shells with a technique adapted to the lack of internal space, similar to 3D printing

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Oysters—and molluscs in general—develop their shells sheet-by-sheet

Scientists from the UGR have discovered that oysters produce three-dimensional foam-like structures with their own innate ‘technology’ to resolve the problem of limited extrapallial space (the small space that separates the mollusc from the shell)

Scientists from the University of Granada (UGR) have discovered that oysters are capable of producing three-dimensional structures organised by physical (colloidal) processes—the result of which resembles a solid foam—by using a unique technique, similar to that of a 3D printer. This technique enables them to develop their shell structures sheet-by-sheet, which resolves the problem of limited extrapallial space (the small space that separates the mollusc from its shell). The findings of this study have been published in the prestigious Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 

Oysters and, in general, molluscs (as well as other groups of invertebrates) secrete their shells via an extremely small space (much less than one micron) that sits between the living tissue that secretes the shell (the mantle) and the growth surface of the shell that exists in all molluscs. This is the so-called extrapallial space (pallium meaning mantle). It takes the form of a very thin film and it is filled with a watery liquid called extrapallial fluid. It is therefore quite extraordinary that oysters can produce vesicles (hollow cavities) that measure tens—sometimes hundreds—of microns in diameter through this very small space.

The Gryphaeidae family of oysters was a major group during the Jurassic (between 201 and 145 million years ago), although today there remain very few. Some groups of this family exclusively developed, from around the Cretaceous period, a highly porous material called vesicular.

“This material is made of vesicles filled with a watery liquid, surrounded by calcitic walls. As this is not a very dense material, through the interleaving of vesicular lenses, the oyster develops a shell that is both strong and lightweight. It also means that thick shells can be produced with a considerable saving in construction material, which is metabolically costly,” explains Professor Antonio Checa, a researcher at the UGR’s Department of Stratigraphy and Palaeontology and the main author of this work.

The study carried out at the UGR focused on how these oysters build their vesicular layers. “Apart from other techniques, we relied on three-dimensional reconstructions and measurements of the vesicular layers of present-day gryphaeid oysters taken with a micro-computed tomography scanner from the UGR’s Centre for Scientific Instrumentation (CIC). All the results show that the vesicular material has topological properties and behaviours similar to those of a solid foam,” explains Checa.

An emulsion within the extrapallial space

The researchers have concluded that the oyster produces this material by first creating an emulsion within the extrapallial space between the liquid-like precursor of the calcite walls and the extrapallial fluid. Importantly, foams (gas–liquid systems) and emulsions (liquid–liquid systems) are colloidal systems that obey the same laws and behave similarly. When growth occurs, the liquid precursor of the calcite crystallises, creating ‘bubbles’, the walls of which solidify. These are then incorporated into the vesicular layer, at the same time as the extrapallial space moves, and, within it, the emulsion continues to evolve.

“For this mechanism to work, each mantle cell must be able to recognise (via contact recognition) the component or components (liquid precursor for calcite or extrapallial fluid) of the emulsion with which it is in contact, and to continue to secrete one or the other, according to this information,” says the UGR professor.

While the process of creating foams typically takes place in large spaces, and bubbles are created and disappear all at once, foam oysters have developed their own ‘technology’ that enables them to develop these sheet-by-sheet, much like a 3D printer. In this way, they have solved the problem of the space restrictions of the extrapallial space. Therefore, the vesicular material of oysters is under a dual control: physical (self-organization of an emulsion) and biological (sophisticated cellular behaviour). 

The mineralised materials secreted by organisms, of which there is a wide variety, pose very interesting biophysical problems. They are also of significant interest in the field of material science because they have exceptional biomechanical properties (lightness, strength, and flexibility), beyond those of their individual components (basically calcium carbonate and organic matter). Hence, they provide inspiration for the development of new highly functional synthetic compounds.

Bibliography:

Checa AG, Linares F, Maldonado-Valderrama J, & Harper EM (2020) Foamy oysters: Vesicular microstructure production in the Gryphaeidae via emulsification’, Journal of the Royal Society Interface 17 (170). Online: 20200505. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2020.0505

Images A, B, C, D, E, and F. Vesicular microstructure of gryphaeid oysters. 

A. View of the interior of a valve showing lenses of vesicular microstructure along the edge. B. Detail of vesicular lenses (porous, ‘v’) and foliated material layers (compact, ‘f’). C. Cross-section of a valve. An intercalation of vesicular (v) and foliated (f) layers can be observed. D. Fracture across a vesicular lens. The existence of growth lines (see arrows) indicates that the material grows by adding infinitesimally small increments. E. View of the inner surface of a vesicular layer, showing its cellular appearance (foam-like). F. Micro-CT images showing the interior of the vesicles. In some cases they are elongated (left) or present irregular morphologies (right).

Fabrication mechanism for the vesicular material. Living tissue (the mantle) is attached to the surface of the growing shell. The mantle cells are capable of recognising the edges of the calcitic walls of the vesicles (red arrows) and secreting onto these edges a thin film of calcite liquid precursor (the thickness of which is limited by the submicrometric dimensions of the extrapallial space). There is no calcite precursor secretion on the rest of the surface. Over time, this liquid precursor crystallizes to form calcite. As this process repeats, a series of increments are added (marked by growth lines).

The four authors of this work. From left to right, Antonio Checa (UGR), Elizabeth Harper (University of Cambridge, UK), Fátima Linares (UGR), and Julia Maldonado (UGR)

Media enquiries:

Antonio Checa

Department of Stratigraphy and Palaeontology, Faculty of Science, University of Granada

Tel.: +34 958 243201

Email: acheca@ugr.es

New study finds that some individuals regard poor people more like animals than humans and refuse to help, blaming them for their circumstances

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A PhD thesis developed at the University of Granada has been announced the winner of the IV (2020) Research Prize for Young Doctors, organised by the Spanish Scientific Society of Social Psychology

According to the researchers, there are parts of the population that dehumanise people of low socioeconomic status, considering them inferior beings with traits that are more characteristic of animals than humans—for example, being irrational or impulsive 

Research carried out at the University of Granada (UGR) suggests that certain parts of the population dehumanise people of low socioeconomic status, considering them inferior beings with traits that are more characteristic of animals than humans—for example, irrational or impulsive behaviours.

The research is part of the PhD thesis of Mario Sainz Martínez, which was supervised by Professors Rosa Rodríguez Bailón and Miguel Moya Morales of the UGR’s Department of Social Psychology. Rocío Martínez, a lecturer at the Department, also contributed to the study. The work has recently been announced the winner of the IV (2020) Research Prize for Young Doctors, organised by the Spanish Scientific Society of Social Psychology.

The current rise in economic inequality that we are witnessing in our society is particularly affecting those collectives with a low socioeconomic status—that is, poor people or those of a low social class. Despite this reality, today many people are against public policies that seek to reduce inequality, for example by redistributing wealth from the individuals and/or groups with the most to those who have the least. In this prize-winning study, the UGR researchers sought to understand the factors that might be influencing this opposition to public policies designed to help the most vulnerable in our society.

“We started from the basis of our previous work, in which we identified that people with a low socioeconomic status are dehumanised by others,” the authors explain. “Specifically, poor people and/or groups are seen by certain parts of the population as inferior beings and as having traits that are more characteristic of animals (such as irrationality or impulsiveness) than human beings. This ‘animalised’ perception of the poorest groups could, according to our hypotheses, be one of the factors that influence how people perceive poverty and their support for, or opposition to, public policies that seek to help this population.”

Animal traits

To test these hypotheses, the researchers conducted two studies (one correlational and the other experimental) in which they asked the participants (a sample of 523 subjects between 18 and 65 years of age) to what extent they considered people with a low socioeconomic status to have characteristics typically associated with human beings or, conversely, more typically associated with animals. The authors also included measures designed to illuminate what the sample believed to be the reasons for which some people find themselves in a situation of poverty, and to what extent the sample considered that policies favour of greater economic equality should be supported.

The results showed that the more an individual tends toward ‘animalising’ poor people—associating them with animal traits—the more they are likely to oppose the implementation of redistributive economic policies. The relationship between these variables seems to be explained by the causes to which people attribute poverty.

“Specifically, the more people ‘animalise’ the poor, the more they blame them for their dire circumstances. This is because people largely consider poverty to be the result of certain traits that they perceive to be characteristic of the poor (for example, that they do not want a job or that they are lazy). At the same time, they minimise the role of external factors such as the difficulty of finding work or the effect of economic recessions),” the authors explain.

In general, these results show how the dehumanisation of the poor influences our interpretation of the causes of poverty and how this, in turn, impacts on our support for, or objection to, wealth distribution policies.

Bibliography:

Sainz, M., Martínez, R., Sutton, R. M., Rodríguez-Bailón, R., & Moya, M. (2020). ‘Less human, more to blame: Animalizing poor people increases blame and decreases support for wealth redistribution’, Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 23(4), 546–59. Online: https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430219841135

Mario Sainz Martínez, researcher at the UGR and one of the authors of this work

People of low socioeconomic status are dehumanised by certain parts of the population as if they were inferior beings with traits more characteristic of animals (for example, irrationality or impulsiveness) than human beings.

Media enquiries:

Rosa Rodríguez Bailón
The Social Psychology of Inequality Lab: http://wwwlocal.ugr.es/~psidesigualdad/

Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Granada
Tel.: +34 958 240690

Email: rrbailon@ugr.es  

Mario Sainz Martinez

School of Psychology, University of Monterrey, MexicoEmail: mario.sainz@udem.edu

Researchers find that the way in which individuals use humour on a daily basis is directly related to online trolling

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A study by the universities of Granada and Jaén is the first to analyse the relationship between the use of humour and the propensity to perpetrate online trolling 

A study carried out by the universities of Granada and Jaén has shown that people who derive pleasure from making fun of others (a personality trait known as katagelasticism) are more likely to perpetrate online trolling. This is the first time the relationship between people’s different humour-related dispositions and their propensity toward online trolling behaviours has been analysed.

Trolling is widely considered a specific form of antisocial behaviour that takes place on different online platforms or websites, such as social networks or virtual discussion forums. This online behaviour manifests itself through malicious and deliberate provocation of other users that is often disrespectful and is fundamentally a means by which the troll simply amuses and entertains themselves.   

Previous studies had shown that different components of the so-called ‘dark personality’, which reflects certain malevolent characteristics, are closely related to the tendency to display trolling behaviours. These studies had analysed the relationship between narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism, respectively, and the propensity to troll others online. In general, sadism and psychopathy factors were found to be the most consistent variables of trolling. The authors of the new study, Ginés Navarro-Carrillo, lecturer at the Department of Psychology of the UJA, and Jorge Torres-Marín and Hugo Carretero-Dios of the UGR, explain: “People who presented higher levels of these dark personality traits showed a greater propensity to troll other users online.”

However, the researchers note that there are also other personality traits that may be related to online trolling. In their paper ‘Do trolls just want to have fun? Assessing the role of humour-related traits in online trolling behaviour’, recently published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, they premised their investigation on the idea that certain humour-related dispositions—particularly those associated with so-called ‘dark’ or ‘black’ humour—might be of help in determining the profile of a ‘trolling personality’. This hypothesis primarily drew on previous studies that had found a link between certain humour-related dispositions and dark personality traits and had contended that humour may play an important role in online trolling.  

“Taking all of this into account, we aimed to analyse whether different humour-related dispositions or senses of humour—how individuals use humour in their daily lives—were related to trolling and whether these possible associations arose regardless of the dark personality traits of the individuals concerned,” the authors note.

They found that higher levels of katagelasticism and an aggressive or hostile sense of humour (characterised by the use of humour to ridicule or deride others) were indicative of a greater inclination toward online trolling. However, subsequent analyses revealed that only katagelasticism was linked to a greater propensity to exhibit trolling behaviours after controlling for dark personality traits. This demonstrates the importance of this particular humour trait in shaping the trolling personality. Regarding the dark personality, greater (subclinical) psychopathy, relative to the other dimensions, was found to be the most powerful predictor of online trolling.

“Our study provides the first empirical evidence to confirm the relationship between humour, evaluated using different validated models, and online trolling. Our research suggests that dark humour traits, particularly katagelasticism, constitute a characteristic aspect of the troll profile,” the researchers conclude.

The UJA and UGR researchers who conducted this study. From left to right, Ginés Navarro, Hugo Carretero, and Jorge Torres.

Media enquiries:

Hugo Carretero Dios
Department of Behavioural Science Methodology, University of Granada
Tel.: +34 958 246273
Email: hugocd@ugr.es 

Tags: Department of Behavioural Science Methodology

An intercultural study finds that we picture the past ahead of us or behind us depending on the importance we attach to it

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Researchers from the University of Granada have carried out the most comprehensive study to date—comprising 22 cultural groups—on the relationship between the importance that people attach to the past and how they picture it: as lying ahead of them or behind them

The authors found a linear relationship in which the cultures under study could be arranged in order, such that the more traditional the culture (attaching greater importance to the past), the greater people’s tendency to conceive the past as lying ahead of them

Think of a personal episode from the past. If someone were to ask you if you were visualising it as lying ahead of you or behind you, what would you say? Researchers from the University of Granada (UGR) have demonstrated that the answer depends on the relevance you assign to the past in your personal value system. To arrive at this conclusion, they carried out the most comprehensive study to date—comprising 22 cultural groups—on the relationship between the importance that people attach to the past and how they picture it. The results of the study indicate that people for whom the past is of greater importance (for example, because they belong to a highly traditional culture) tend to visualise the past as being ahead of them and the future behind them. Conversely, those who attach more importance to the future (for example, those from a progress-orientated culture) tend to picture the past as being behind them and the future ahead.

The principal researchers of this study are Carmen Callizo-Romero and Julio Santiago of the UGR’s Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (CIMCYC). Nine other international co-authors are collaborating in the investigation.

Callizo-Romero explains that “we tend to think that the future is located ahead of us and the past behind us because we walk forward. Ahead of us are the places where we will be in the future, and behind us are those where we have already been. However, although this pattern may seem universal, it is not. There is at least one other factor that moderates it, and this is what we have investigated.”

The Temporal Focus Hypothesis and previous studies

The study was based on the Temporal Focus Hypothesis, a concept used in the Psychology field that suggests that when we attach importance to something, we pay attention to it; and that this, in turn, leads us to place it in front of us, in our mind’s eye—that is, it is located ahead of the person. When applied to time, this concept implies that the relative importance given to the past (compared to the future) situates it ahead of us. This concept was formulated for the first time in a study published in 2014 by the same UGR laboratory that has published the current study, the GroundedCognitionLab. 

The 2014 study was conducted on a sample of Spanish and Moroccan participants. It showed that the latter tend to picture the past as lying ahead of them and that this is due to their stronger traditional culture. In other words, Moroccans tend to place the past ahead of themselves when they picture it because they attach great importance to values ​​related to the past, such as traditions, customs, and respect for their elders. However, young Spaniards attached more importance to values ​​related to the future, such as progress and development, and tended to place the future ahead, accordingly. Following the publication of this earlier work, numerous studies from other international universities—with participants from cultures around the world, particularly Asian cultures—have provided evidence in support of this hypothesis.

The new study and its main finding

In this new study, the UGR researchers tested the scope and validity of the Temporal Focus Hypothesis. First, they collected data from participants from seven different cultures (American, Spanish, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, Moroccan, and Turkish) and combined them with the data from the Moroccan and Spanish participants in the previous study conducted in their laboratory. The authors found a linear relationship in which the cultures under study could be arranged in order, such that the more traditional the culture (attaching greater importance to the past), the greater people’s tendency to picture the past as lying ahead.

“Furthermore, we suspected that this linear relationship could predict the results of the other previously-published studies on the Temporal Focus Hypothesis that used our same methodology. We were able to verify this thanks to the authors of these studies, who provided us with their data which derived from different cultures—in particular, from South African and British participants and various subcultures of China and Vietnam,” says Callizo-Romero. The UGR researchers found that all the cultures studied are, indeed, ordered according to their prediction. “This is important because it indicates that the prediction can be useful for estimating the extent to which people of any culture (or subculture) are likely to picture the past as lying ahead of them, knowing only how much importance they attach to the values ​​of the past compared to those of the future.”

In short, the findings of this latest UGR study entirely support the Temporal Focus Hypothesis: attaching importance to the past can lead us to picture it ahead of us, rather than behind.

Bibliography:

Callizo-Romero, C., Tutnjević, S., Pandza, M., Ouellet, M., Kranjec, A., Ilić, S., Gu, Y., Göksun, T., Chahboun, S., Casasanto, D., & Santiago, J. (2020). ‘Temporal focus and time spatialization across cultures’, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. Online: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01760-5

Media enquiries:

Carmen Callizo-Romero

Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (CIMCYC)

Email: carmencallizo@ugr.es

UGR scientists attempt to strengthen the nasal and oral mucosae to render them impermeable and prevent the Coronavirus from penetrating them

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The research project, in which the CSIC and the University of Barcelona are also participating along with the UGR, aims to develop an aerosol with lipids similar to those of the skin that emulate its impermeability when applied to the mucous membranes—thus reducing or avoiding penetration by the virus

Aerosols could be used on the nasal and oral mucosae to provide additional protection to facemasks in the fight against Covid-19

Scientists from the University of Granada (UGR), in collaboration with the Spanish Higher National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Barcelona (UB), are working on a project to strengthen the nasal and oral mucosae, increase their barrier effect, and reduce their permeability to limit or prevent penetration by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus infiltrates mainly through the nasal or oral mucosa, as opposed to the relatively low incidence of penetration through the skin. The study therefore aims to develop aerosols that ‘mimic’ skin lipids in their chemical and structural composition, as the latter are known to be more impervious to Coronavirus.

If this approach proves successful, better-reinforced lipid structures would form in the mucosae, which could help prevent the virus from penetrating. This innovation would not provide full protection, but the reduction in permeability could partially impede penetration of the virus at the systemic level and thus protect people. It could be particularly valuable for healthcare workers.

The research team comprises the Cosmetic and Textile Innovations Research Group of the Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC), which pertains to the CSIC; the UB; and the UGR. Together, they are conducting the research & development project ‘Mucosal Modification as a Protection against SARS-COV-2”.

After optimizing the most suitable methodologies to evaluate the permeability of the mucosae, the researchers will first apply different aerosol formulations based on compounds similar to those of the skin on oral and nasal mucosae in an attempt to determine their impermeability. Next, they will analyse the capacity of a virus model (similar to coronavirus) to penetrate the mucosae that have been protected with the new aerosol.

“This innovation will probably not provide complete protection, but the decrease in permeability will partially prevent the virus from penetrating at the systemic level and will probably provide additional protection to that of facemasks,” explains Beatriz Clares Naveros, a lecturer at the UGR’s Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology, who is participating in this project together with Mª Luisa Coderch Negra (CSIC/IQAC) and Ana Cristina Calpena Campmany (UB). The team of scientists from the CSIC specialise in the chemical and structural composition of skin lipids. They have worked extensively on the extraction and characterization of lipids from keratin tissues such as the stratum corneum (the outermost layer) of skin, hair, wool, and so on.

Barrier function

Ana Calpena, from the UB’s Faculty of Pharmacy, will bring to the project her specialist knowledge of the structure, kinetics, and permeability of mucosae. Beatriz Clares will be in charge of designing and developing different formulations with protective and mucoadhesive action that can be applied to the mucosae to increase their barrier function properties.

As the outermost layer of the epidermis, the stratum corneum is made up of about 20 sub-layers of dead cells, known as corneocytes, which form a layered packing structure. Between the corneocytes are perfectly-structured lipid bilayers composed of lipids (ceramides, fatty acids, and cholesterol) that help create a practically impenetrable protective barrier. This layer becomes permeable only in the case of wounds, burns, or skin diseases.

However, the mucosae—the barriers that protect the mouth, pharynx, bronchi, lungs, and digestive system—are much more permeable and thus vulnerable to infection. “The mucous membranes are open to the outside world and that is why they have mechanisms against microbes, such as the enzymes in our saliva or the cilia in our bronchi, which are like minuscule hairs designed to filter the air we breathe. But these mechanisms are insufficient in the face of a virus like SARS-Cov-2,” the researchers explain.

“The potential impact would be huge if the entire population could be protected via the nasal mucosa from SARS-CoV-2, even partially. Today, the only protection against Covid-19 infection is based on the use of facemasks. We do not know the extent to which permeability could be reduced, but it would at least provide additional protection to the mask,” the authors note.

The raw materials used must preserve the natural properties of healthy mucosae and, at the same time, block the virus from entering, chemically and/or mechanically. The researchers will analyse the combined use of formulations that block or degrade the virus to provide synergistic effects. The design of these formulations will take into account two criteria, composition and dosage form, as both could be influential in fulfilling the aim of the project.

As well as their respective areas of specialisation, all the researchers involved in the project have extensive experience in topical administration and, between them, have carried out hundreds of absorption/permeation studies to evaluate the penetration of active ingredients through the skin or mucosae.

Cross-section of porcine buccal mucosa for ex vivo studies

The UGR researcher Beatriz Clares Naveros

Media enquiries:

Beatriz Clares Naveros, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology

Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada

Tel.: + 34 958 246664

Email: beatrizclares@ugr.es

Children who sleep better and wake up earlier have more grey matter and deliver superior academic performance

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[Spanish version]

Researchers from the University of Granada are leading the ActiveBrains study,in which more than 100 overweight or obese children participated

The research shows that children who go to bed earlier and sleep better and have more grey matter than those with poorer-quality sleep, leading to better academic performance and higher IQ

Children who sleep better (that is, those who wake up less during night) and those who wake up earlier have more grey matter in their brains (specifically, in eight cortical regions and in the hippocampus), perform better academically, and have a higher level of intelligence (IQ).

This has been demonstrated by scientists from the Sport and Health University Research Institute (iMUDS) and the Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre (CIMCYC)—both part of the University of Granada (UGR). The scientists are collaborating in the ‘ActiveBrains’ study led by researcher Francisco Ortega, which involves a sample of more than 100 overweight or obese children.

Their work, published in the journal Pediatric Obesity, reveals that the regions of the brain associated with sleep in children include: the temporal (inferior temporal gyrus and the fusiform gyrus), the parietal (superior parietal cortex, supramarginal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, and precuneus), the frontal (frontal–superior medial gyrus), and the subcortical (hippocampus).

“Our research shows that sleep is associated with greater grey matter in some areas of the brain that are important for better academic performance and cognitive development,” explains Jairo Hidalgo Migueles, researcher at the UGR’s Department of Physical Education and Sports and principal author of this work.

This research highlights the importance of developing strategies to improve children’s quality of sleep (not only its duration) at the cognitive level in the various stages of child development.

An appropriate window of time

“Similarly, we found that waking up earlier was strongly associated with better academic performance. This result seems to indicate that the appropriate window of time must be ensured, from the time the child wakes up until the school day begins, thus ensuring good cognitive activation,” notes Hidalgo Migueles.

Among the most original aspects of this study is the fact that the authors performed an objective and highly detailed measurement of sleep through accelerometers built into smartbands that the children wore through the night.

The UGR scientists also obtained high-quality images of the brain activity of the schoolchildren using magnetic resonance imaging carried out at the CIMCYC.

Bibliography

Migueles J.H., Cadenas-Sanchez C., Esteban-Cornejo I., Mora-Gonzalez J., Rodriguez-Ayllon M., Solis-Urra P., Erickson K.I., Kramer A.F., Hillman C.H., Catena A., and Ortega F.B. (2020), ‘Associations of sleep with gray matter volume and their implications for academic achievement, executive function and intelligence in children with overweight/obesity’. Pediatriatric Obesity. Online: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijpo.12707

Jairo Hidalgo Migueles, researcher at the Department of Physical Education and Sports, UGR, and the main author of this work

Regions of the brain in which grey matter volume is associated with sleep characteristics in overweight or obese children. Children who enjoyed better-quality sleep also had a greater volume of grey matter in certain areas (marked here in red)

Children who sleep better (that is, those wake up less during the night) and also those who wake up earlier have more grey matter in the brain, deliver better academic performance, and have a higher IQ

Media enquiries:

Jairo Hidalgo Migueles

Department of Physical Education and Sports, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Granada

Email: jairohm@ugr.es

Scientists determine, for the first time, the gender and age of the authors of prehistoric cave paintings using fingerprint analysis

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[Spanish version]

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Granada, has, for the first time, applied the study of palaeodermatoglyphs (ancient fingerprints) to the cave paintings found in the Los Machos rock-shelter (on the eastern slope of the Cerro de Jabalcón in Zújar, Granada)

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Granada (UGR), has determined for the first time the gender and age of the authors of cave paintings found in the Los Machos rock-shelter (on the eastern slope of the Cerro de Jabalcón in Zújar, Granada) by using fingerprint analysis.

Their study, published in the prestigious journal Antiquity, analysed the 32 prehistoric motifs painted in the Los Machos rock-shelter between 7,000 and 5,000 thousand years ago. The researchers identified fingerprints belonging to two different individuals in the paintings: an adult male, older than 36, and possibly a young woman or, more likely, a young individual who could be male or female.

Francisco Martínez Sevilla, a researcher at the UGR and the University of Alcalá de Henares, explains: “the identification of two individuals of different ages or genders opens up new horizons in the interpretation of rupestrian art and sheds light on the social context in which it was produced, most notably involving different members of the community. This study shows that the representations in these cave paintings were not limited to a specific group denoted by age or gender.”

This is the first application of palaeodermatoglyphic analysis to rupestrian art, demonstrating the major potential of this technique for studies of prehistoric art. These analyses were performed by the GROB Research Group on Osteobiography, coordinated by Professor Assumpció Malgosa.

Palaeodermatoglyphs—fingerprints found in archaeological contexts—are ancient skin-prints left accidentally (or even deliberately) on different materials, including the walls of prehistoric caves (such as those at Los Machos) or on ceramic surfaces.

Where the fingerprints are well conserved, their examination enables the gender and age of their owners to be identified via the analysis of papillary ridges, which are the linear raised epidermal ridges interspersed with grooves in the rounded part of the fingertip. There are differences between the genders in both the number of ridges and their width, because men have larger ridges than women.

There are also age-related features because, although the fingerprint pattern does not change during a person’s lifetime, the distance between the ridges increases during growth and stabilises in adulthood. Comparing archaeological fingerprints with present-day samples enables the gender and age of the individual to be defined within a range of probability.

Cave paintings are perhaps one of humanity’s most universal symbolic expressions. Research in this area to date has focused on the study of the motifs represented, their meaning, their geographical distribution, and their dating. But the question of authorship—who exactly painted or etched these marks—is particularly fascinating for researchers. Being able to ascertain the gender and age of the authors of these pictorial representations can provide an insight into the social context in which they were made—that is, whether they were the result of individual expression or created by various members of the community.

Analysis of the cave and the pictorial panel

“In this project, we conducted an interdisciplinary study of the ‘schematic art’ on the panel [rock surface] of the Los Machos rock-shelter. ‘Schematic’ art is one of the three styles of rupestrian art defined in the late prehistoric Iberian Peninsula, together with ‘Levantine’ and ‘Macro-Schematic’. Schematism is a pictorial style that appears throughout the Peninsula and dates from the Early Neolithic to the Copper Age (mid-6th Century to 3rd Century BC),” explains Martínez Sevilla.

The researchers’ examination of the rock-shelter and the pictorial panel included: an analysis of its geological morphology (which accounts for the paintings’ state of conservation and durability over time); the techniques used in the application of the paint; the regional archaeological context; the dating that could be attributed; and identification of the biological profile of the authors of the paintings by means of palaeodermatoglyphic analysis.

Also participating in the study along with Francisco Martínez Sevilla were Meritxell Arqués, Xavier Jordana, and Assumpció Malgosa (Autonomous University of Barcelona), José Antonio Lozano Rodríguez, Margarita Sánchez Romero, and Javier Carrasco Rus (University of Granada), and Kate Sharpe (University of Durham, UK).

On the pictorial panel of the Los Machos rock-shelter, a total of 32 painted motifs were identified, the majority of which comprise anthropomorphic, circular, and geometric figures. The paintings are likely to have been preserved in their entirety, as evidenced by the geomorphological study and their layout on the rock surface. The superposition of the figures and the different pigment tones suggest that the paintings were made in two phases, which could represent two distinct chronological episodes.

«Our analysis of the width of the outlines enabled us to confirm that the pigment was applied with fingers and that the fingerprints pertained to Phase 2, the most recent, in which a dark ochre pigment was used,» the authors conclude.

View of the Cerro de Jabalcón (Zújar, Granada) from its eastern slope where the Los Machos rock-shelter is located

Los Machos rock-shelter and panel featuring Schematic Art

A) photograph of the ‘Schematic Art’ panel at Los Machos and B) photograph processed using ImageJ® software

Tracing of the Los Machos rupestrian art panel and detail of the fingerprints identified 

Bibliography:

Martínez-Sevilla, F., Arqués, M., Jordana, X., Malgosa, A., Lozano Rodríguez, JA, Sánchez Romero, M., Sharpe, K., and Carrasco Rus, J. (2020), ‘Who painted that? The authorship of Schematic rock art at the Los Machos rock-shelter in southern Iberia’. Antiquity, 1–19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.140

Media enquiries:

Francisco Martínez Seville

Research Group for the Study of Recent Prehistory in Andalusia (GEPRAN)

Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Granada

Assistant Professor (tenure track), University of Alcalá (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid)

Prehistory Seminar, Department of History and Philosophy.

Email: martinezsevilla@ugr.es

Scientists reveal one of the secrets of nature for which there is no apparent explanation: the mathematical pattern followed by bees when making their perfect honeycombs

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29/09/2020

An international team of scientists, led by the Andalusian Earth Sciences Institute (CSIC-UGR), shows that Australian stingless bees produce their honeycombs by following complex patterns, yet they have no prior plan, nor do they coordinate with the other worker bees

This is a beautiful example of the applicability of mathematics to nature: bees build their honeycombs following the same mathematical rules as atoms or molecules attaching to a crystal

An international team of scientists, led by the Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences (IACT, a mixed centre of the Spanish Higher Council for Scientific Research/ CSIC and the University of Granada), has revealed for the first time one of nature’s best-kept secrets: the mathematical patterns followed by bees in order to make such perfect honeycombs.

The researchers, who have published their results in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, demonstrated, in a beautiful example of the applicability of mathematics to nature, that Australian stingless bees (Tetragonula carbonaria, endemic to that continent) build their combs following complex patterns without any planning and with no overall coordination with the other worker bees.

The study concludes that bees produce their combs following the same mathematical rules as atoms or molecules attaching to a crystal. Thus, the honeycombs form the same terraced patterns that are observed in minerals, such as in the mother-of-pearl produced by molluscs.

“Tetragonula carbonaria honeycombs present surprising patterns that can be spirals, double spirals, or in a bull’s-eye-like formation,” explain Bruno Escribano Salazar and Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró, two of the IACT researchers who participated in this study. Until now, it was only known that worker bees build hives by adding new cells at the end of each layer or terrace of the honeycomb, but there was no convincing explanation as to how these Australian bees are able to form such complex patterns. “It was originally thought that some kind of coordination and communication between workers would be necessary, possibly through chemical signals,” they add.

No master plan

Now, in this study led by the UGR (in which scientists from the University of Cambridge and the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, collaborated), a mathematical model has been developed that explains how bees produce these patterns without the need for any master plan or overall coordination.

By examining the structures and order that emerge in the combs, the researchers have identified a model of minimal complexity in which each individual worker bee only needs the minimal information about its closest environment to contribute to the structure, without the need for group coordination or superior intelligence. The patterns observed by the scientists are, therefore, an emergent phenomenon resulting from the localised behavior of the workers.

The researchers have simplified the model to just two parameters: (R) the typical size of the bee and (α) a random term related to the variability in the honeycomb cells. By modifying these parameters, the model is able to generate all the patterns observed in the honeycombs.

The recent discoveries regarding the cognition of bees and bumblebees are astonishing. “We know that bumblebees learn by watching others; that the behaviour of bees is affected by their emotional states, and that they can even respond to concepts such as ‘the same’ and ‘different’”, explain the authors. “There is also evidence of intelligence when building their honeycombs: they resolve occasional construction problems and they do it in a flexible way that suggests they are not acting solely on instinct.”

‘Inflexible’ behaviours

But, as is well known, they also have a series of simple, ‘inflexible’, and innate behaviours that enable the hive to function. In bee colonies, these innate behaviours form part of a phenomenon known as stigmergy, in which complex results can be achieved through the simple actions of many individuals, without the need for any planning between them.

“Bees coordinate their actions by modifying their environment, they do not need a master plan … in this case, they do not even need to communicate!” the researchers observe. All they have to do is modify their environment locally, and self-organisation emerges almost out of nowhere. “The structures that we describe here are the result of an emerging phenomenon, it is not a plan but the outcome of simple accumulated actions,” they explain. 

The researchers had previously applied the same model to crystal growth on a microscopic scale, albeit with some differences in its parameters (https://www.pnas.org/content/106/26/10499). Yet, although both systems are very different, the same patterns emerged as a result of the same rules of self-organisation.

Tetragonula honeycombs showing (a) bull’s-eye patterns, (b) spiral patterns (c) double spirals, and (d) disordered terraces.

UGR researchers Bruno Escribano Salazar and Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró.

Bibliography:

Silvana S. S. Cardoso, Julyan H. E. Cartwright, Antonio G. Checa, Bruno Escribano, Antonio J. Osuna-Mascaró and C. Ignacio Sainz-Díaz (2020), ‘The bee Tetragonula builds its comb like a crystal’, Journal of The Royal Society Interface 17(168). Online: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2020.0187

Media enquiries:

Bruno Escribano Salazar

Andalusian Earth Sciences Institute (CSIC-UGR)

Email: bruno.escribano@csic.es

Scientists analyse the fossil pollen of cedars that were deposited in the lakes of Sierra Nevada thousands of years ago, to study why this species is now disappearing from Morocco

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This forest species disappeared from the Iberian Peninsula due to natural—mainly climatic—causes at some point in the Pleistocene (from about 2 million years ago to about 10,000 years ago), but the precise moment of its disappearance remains unknown, as do the causes 

A team of scientists from the University of Granada has analysed the pollen records of the Cedrus (the cedar), a forest species that disappeared from the Iberian Peninsula due to natural—mainly climatic—causes at some point in the Pleistocene, to study why this species is also now disappearing in the Middle Atlas and the Rif Mountains of Morocco.

The fossil pollen of this tree is found in the Sierra Nevada but was likely to have originally been carried across from Northern Africa by the wind. Together with the sediments that have accumulated in the last few thousand years in the lakes of Sierra Nevada, it presents many similarities with comparable records from lakes in Morocco. Furthermore, the Sierra Nevada records could be used as a proxy for changes in the cedar forests of North Africa.

Mountainous and alpine environments are especially fragile and sensitive to climate change. Previous studies have shown that rising temperatures and drought conditions in the Mediterranean are inducing mortality among humidity-sensitive forest species such as the cedar (Cedrusatlantica) in the Middle Atlas and Rif Mountains of Morocco. The current situation for cedar in those two areas is a cause for concern.

In the Iberian Peninsula, the cedar is known to have disappeared during the Pleistocene (from about 2 million years to about 10,000 years ago), but the precise timing of its disappearance and the exact causes are not known.

The study carried out by UGR researchers also shows that the unusually high temperatures and the increase in summer drought have generated a marked drop in the cedar population in the mountains of Morocco and that they play a very important role in its abundance over time.

Climatic projections of an increase in temperature and drought in the Sierra Nevada region are putting this significant forest species in serious danger.

Bibliography:

Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno*, R. Scott Anderson, María J. Ramos-Román, Jon Camuera, Jose Manuel Mesa-Fernández, Antonio García-Alix, Francisco J. Jiménez-Espejo, José S. Carrión, Alejandro López-Avilés (2020) ‘The Holocene Cedrus pollen record from Sierra Nevada (S Spain), a proxy for climate change in N Africa.’ Quaternary Science Reviews 242. Online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106468

Media enquiries:

Gonzalo Jimenez-Moreno

Department of Stratigraphy and Palaeontology, University of Granada

Email: gonzaloj@ugr.es

UGR scientists prove that no glasses can enable colour-blind people to perceive new colours

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This work is part of a strand of research being undertaken by the Department of Optics of the University of Granada (UGR) in Spain to analyse the effectiveness of various aids marketed as ostensibly ‘improving’ colour vision among colour-blind people

In 2018 and 2019, the research team demonstrated the ineffectiveness of two such products: EnChroma’s Cx-65 glasses and VINO’s 02 Amp Oxy-Iso glasses. Neither was found to improve the colour vision of colour-blind people.

In Spain alone there are almost 2 million colour-blind people (one in 12 men and one in 200 women) who struggle to discern the different colours. Due to this reduced capacity to distinguish certain colours, they experience a range of day-to-day difficulties and it also impedes them from applying for jobs in some professions—for example, they are excluded from being train drivers, pilots, police officers, fire-fighters, and so on. 

Five scientists from the University of Granada (UGR), in their on-going research into this issue, have computationally modelled almost 100,000 different colour filters (rather than testing filters that are already marketed by various companies, such as EnChroma or VINO, which sell ‘glasses for the colour-blind’). Using these computer models, they have studied which of the filters would increase the number of colours that colour-blind people could perceive and what their effect would be on the results of two tests that are commonly used in diagnosing colour-blindness (the Ishihara test and the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue test).

Among the filters they modelled, the scientists also included lenses with a colour filter sold by the aforementioned companies VINO and EnChroma. These lenses have received considerable media attention in recent years, with viral videos that have flooded social networks showing colour-blind people overwhelmed with emotion when trying on such glasses for the first time.

The findings of the research showed that, although certain filters do increase the number of discernible colours, the improvement is negligible and the increase does not enable colour-blind people to perceive the same range of colours as normal subjects. It was also found that none of these filters would pass the Ishihara test or the Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue test, the latter being very reliable in assessing colour vision in humans. 

These results support the hypothesis that, despite the apparent success of the marketing campaigns implemented by the companies that sell this type of glasses, these filters will never enable colour-blind people to enjoy a similar degree of perception in their vision to that of individuals with normal colour perception.

The results have recently been published in the scientific journal SENSORS. The five doctors who contributed to the article are all from the Department of Optics of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Granada: Miguel Ángel Martínez Domingo, Luis Gómez Robledo, Eva Valero Benito, Rafael Huertas Roa, and Javier Hernández Andrés.

Bibliography:

Miguel A. Martínez-Domingo, Eva M. Valero, Luis Gómez-Robledo, Rafael Huertas, and Javier Hernández-Andrés (2020), ‘Spectral filter selection for increasing chromatic diversity in CVD subjects’, Sensors, 20(7), 2023. Online: https://doi.org/10.3390/s20072023

Image captions:

Simulation of how different types of observers would perceive the same scene (by columns from left to right: normal vision, protanomalous, protanope, deuteranomalous and deuteranope), without the filter (above) and with the filter (below), showing the greatest number of perceived colours that the filter would provide to each type of observer.

The researchers at the UGR who conducted this study on colour-blindness.

Media enquiries:

Miguel Ángel Martínez Domingo

Department of Optics, Faculty of Science, University of Granada

Email: martinezm@ugr.es