Six-month-old infants react to photos of spiders even if they have never seen them before, according to a study by the Max Planck Institute, Vienna University, and Uppsala University published in Frontiers in Psychology. A specialized device tracked pupil expansion when babies viewed spider photos mixed with flower photos matched in size and color. Parents wore dark glasses so they could not see the images, preventing their own reactions from influencing the test.
Initial tests comparing reactions to snakes and fish showed no clear difference. When researchers repeated the experiment with new groups of children viewing only one animal, pupils expanded noticeably more for snakes than for fish.
Visual reactions to snakes and spiders
Study author Stefanie Hoehl explained that the infant brain appears pre-tuned to notice such shapes faster. Hoehl noted that children are not born with fear, but find it easier to learn to fear these animals if given a reason. Researcher Wolfgang Daenzer said pupils may dilate simply because a spider image is more complex for the eye than a simple flower, rather than because of fear.
Another group of scientists doubted that young children fear spiders and snakes after observing children aged 1.5 to 3 years. When a live spider or snake sat in a cage nearby, the children reached toward them rather than running away. The study authors added that a real phobia of spiders or snakes occurs in only 1 to 5 people out of 100, indicating that early visual attention precedes any potential fear.
Farm bacteria and allergy protection
UNIAN previously reported that children raised on farms with exposure to cow microorganisms suffer significantly less often from asthma, allergies, and eczema. German scientists identified nine bacterial species that may explain this farm effect, where rural children experience allergic diseases far less often than urban peers.
To conduct that research, scientists analyzed mattress dust samples from 1,018 schoolchildren in rural communities across southern Germany. They also collected air samples from cowsheds to identify the specific microbes involved.
