Reaction time predicts longevity.

No doubt you have heard the saying: "The Quick and The Dead", as applied, by Hollywood, to gunslingers. Well, it applies more generally than that. It seems that the quick live longer.

Research published in Psychological Science - the Journal of the American Psychological Society - has revealed a strong correlation between reaction time, and ultimate longevity.

The paper, "Reaction time explains IQ's association with death" in January 2005, looked at 898 people aged 54 to 58 in Scotland who were given an IQ test and a reaction time test (visual response time) in 1988. They were also asked various health related questions. Over the next 14 years, 185 of them died. An analysis of the relationship between longevity and IQ, showed (as have other studies) that high IQs tended to correlate with greater survival and longer life times. However, a stronger correlation was found between reaction time and longevity.

Ian Deary of Edinburgh University and Geoff Der of the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow, surmised that reaction time could be indicating the presence or otherwise of brain degeneration, with consequent effects on survival.

In the light of this finding I went off and tested my reaction time. The results were a lot better than characteristic of my age, so on this particular issue I don't seem to have any worries. In fact, I was relieved to find that my times were better than those of 30 year olds (and therefore 20 year olds, too)...Let's hope they stay that way (though as regular readers will know from an earlier post, the ageing process tends to slow one down considerably.)

So, the moral of the story is as Hollywood would love it to be: be quick, not dead.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

International Left-Handers Day: August 13th.

Today marks an international celebration of left-handedness.

Left-handedness is found in about 7 to 10% of the population. Throughout history, left-handers have been subject to suspicion and marginalization in many cultures, yet recent research has pointed out some interesting gifts that left-handers possess.

To be left-handed is to be different in more fundamental ways than the hand which you choose to write with: it goes deep into the very wiring of the brain. A left-hander's brain is visibly different in form and structure than a right-handers. These differences are critical to understanding the fundamental differences between left and right handers.

Normally the brain, which is divided into two halves in almost all humans (in some cases it is fused, I understand), consists of two different sized halves. For a right hander, one half is larger than the other. For a left-hander, this disparity is not seen: the two halves of the brain are of similar size. There is a good reason for this that we will get onto in a minute.

The left-hander also has a thicker corpus callosum - the bridge that connects the two halves of the brain- than a right-hander. This affords the left-hander greater communication power or "bandwidth" between the left and right halves of the brain. This is key to understanding the advantage that a left-hander holds.

When the brain is confronted with a difficult challenge: either a fast or a hard task, or one that has multiple stimuli at the same time, one half of the brain may easily become overwhelmed. Here is where the left-hander wins. You see when confronted with fast and or multiple stimuli, the left-handed brain will recruit processing power from the other half of the brain. The left hander will share the task across its two fairly equal hemispheres. In this way, the task load on one hemisphere is reduced and the task is more easily overcome. Right handers don't do this well. They rely on the power of their dominant hemisphere to handle the task and are not so good at recruiting assistance from their other brain hemisphere.

Thus, in fast-moving, challenging domains, the left-hander is superior to the right hander. This may be seen in sports, gaming or in any situation that has multiple stimuli. Particular - and critical cases - of this would include fighter pilots - or indeed civilian pilots, in which they are faced with the simultaneous input of a large amount of information in which all must be dealt with at the same time.

In simple terms, the left-hander thinks quicker than the right hander, when the task demands much of them.

It should be noted that this innate advantage for the left-hander will only be noticeable when it is called upon. In slow-moving tasks, without multiple stimuli, the advantage that left-handers possess will not be seen. However, put two people in a situation in which they are pushed to handle a lot of information at the same time - and the left hander of the two, will shine. The right hander will quickly get overloaded by the excessive mental workload.

So, perhaps it is time to acknowledge the gifts of the left-handers among us. Some cultures still find it difficult to accept them as they are, and still encourage them to use their right hand, like "everyone else". This is a mistake. The left-hander is fundamentally not like right handers. They are neurologically and distinct - and have something unique to offer us all.

A left-hander is best for any task that requires a high-throughput of multiple stimuli. So that is where they should be - in fast, hard, demanding roles, with much happening at the same time. That is where they can best make their most natural contribution: the one that plays to their strengths.

This strength of left-handers is commonly known as being good at multi-tasking. So, if it is a multi-tasking role - let the left-handers, handle it.

As careful readers of this blog will already have noted, Ainan, 7, my son, is a left-hander. Most of the rest of the family is mixed handed (ambidextrous) in some way. I will write more of this topic in future.

So, if you have a left-handed child don't adopt the concern of the right handed culture in which we live, that it is somehow unacceptable or problematic: it is not. Left-handedness, as now understood, is a kind of gift in and of itself. It is a misunderstood blessing - so be happy.

This new understanding of left-handedness was written of in an article in the journal Neuropsychology, by the Australian National University researcher Dr Nick Cherbuin. It was published in November 2006.

(If you would like to read of my left-handed son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and one month, or Tiarnan, eighteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, genetics, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children. Thanks.)

The power of the unconscious

It was four months ago, now, when Tiarnan was but ten months old, and I haven't found a moment to tell the tale, until now.

We had become accustomed by that time, to see Tiarnan go comfortably down the stairs on his own. After all, he had first tackled the stairs successfully at five months and so we had come to see little reason to fear his meanderings up and down stairs: he had clearly mastered the skill.

That morning however, as I was talking to my wife, Tiarnan approached the stairs, a few metres away, in the background. Some uncanny feeling alerted me that all was not as it should be. There was something about his gait, about his angle and speed of approach that concerned me. Just as he stepped out into the air, it became clear that he had misjudged it - he was falling down the stairs, headfirst.

I don't know what happened in that moment. Some old part of me awoke. A more youthful part. A very much faster part of me that I had thought lost long ago, in my teens, aroused itself. I leapt forward with a speed I did not know I still possessed, crossed those few metres and reached out with my left hand and closed my fist tight about his shirt, as he fell down the stairs. To my astonishment, that of my wife - and no doubt that of Tiarnan himself - I found myself clutching my ten month old baby with his face suspended above the steps, inches from contact. He had not struck the stairs at all. All that movement of body and arm and snaring of baby had happened in a time too short to consciously observe - and yet there he was, floating in space above the steps, held by my reflexively tight fist.

It has been many years since I had moved like that - many years since I thought I still could. Grateful to whatever within me had saved him, I set Tiarnan down on the ground above the steps. He was completely unharmed.

Had he fallen down the steps headfirst, he might be another Tiarnan today - one very much lessened by the incident.

I am thankful that it did not happen.

(If you would like to read more about Tiarnan, or his gifted brothers, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and four months, and Fintan, three, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Tiarnan's speed of reaction

Yesterday Tiarnan showed an interesting side to his physical development: reaction time and co-ordination.

You see, Tiarnan was standing beside the front door to our house. Those of you who have read many of the early postings on my blog will know that this is a very heavy wooden affair. Well, as he was standing there, the door suddenly began to open - and yet Tiarnan was only inches from it when it began to do so. I was too far away to do anything about it - but what impressed me was what Tiarnan himself did about it - he ran backwards, at once. Were he to avoid being struck by the door, there simply wasn't time to turn around - and so he ran backwards. He reacted very fast and began to move as soon as the door began to leap towards him. He did about five or six quick backward steps taking him out of reach of the door.

It was interesting to note that he did not stumble or fall in this backwards motion - and yet it is the first time I have noted him moving backwards like that. It seems he got it right, first time (though he may have run backwards on other occasions unobserved, of course). What was also of note is the speed of reaction he showed: he was so close to that door that, to avoid being struck, he must have begun to move very shortly, indeed, upon perceiving the movement of the door. I think he reacted rather more quickly than a typical adult would do.

Had he been struck by that door, it would have been really unfunny, so heavy is it. There is no doubt that he would have been injured.

I will have to make sure that the guest in question learns the value of knocking on the door, first, before opening it. Not everyone in Singapore behaves as people would in England.

(If you would like to read more of Tiarnan, thirteen months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, three and Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and three months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)