Quirky Science

Headaches during sex no laughing matter

About 1 percent of adults report they have experienced headaches associated with sexual activity, and that such headaches can be severe.
But the actual incidence is almost certainly higher, according to Dr. Jose Biller, a Loyola University Medical Center neurologist.
"Many people who experience headaches during sexual activity are too embarrassed to tell their physicians, and doctors often don't ask," writes Dr Jose Biller, who has treated dozens of patients for headaches associated with sexual activity (HAS).
The vast majority of headaches associated with sexual activity are benign. But in a small percentage of cases, these headaches can be due to a serious underlying condition, such as a hemorrhage, brain aneurysm, stroke, cervical artery dissection or subdural hematoma. "So we recommend that patients undergo a thorough neurological evaluation to rule out secondary causes, which can be life-threatening.”
Biller said men are three to four times more likely to get HSAs than women.

Photo courtesy: Rutgers University

Passwords of the future

As more people use smart phones or tablets to pay bills, make purchases, store personal information and even control access to their houses, the need for robust password security has become more critical than ever.
A new Rutgers University study shows that free-form gestures – sweeping fingers in shapes across the screen of a smart phone or tablet – can be used to unlock phones and grant access to apps. These gestures are less likely than traditional typed passwords or newer "connect-the-dots" grid exercises to be observed and reproduced by "shoulder surfers" who spy on users to gain unauthorized access.
While widespread adaptation of this technology is not yet clear, the research team plans to continue to analyze the security and management of free-form passwords in the future.

It's the last bite that keeps you coming back for more

Your memory for that last bite of a steak or chocolate cake may be more influential than memory for the first bite in determining when you want to eat it again, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Our memories for foods are often vivid, especially when we experience foods that are terrifyingly bad or delightfully good. The findings from this research shed light on how memories for food are formed and how they guide our decisions about how soon we're willing to eat a food again.
"Research has told us a lot about factors that influence what foods people want to consume, but less is known about factors that influence when they want to consume a particular food again," explains researcher and lead author Emily Garbinsky of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business."A glass of juice, bowl of ice cream, or bag of potato chips contains many units of very similar stimuli that are consumed one sip or bite at a time until the entire portion has been eaten.”
So, if we take a lot of bites of the same food in succession, our memory for the last bites may interfere with our ability to accurately remember the initial bites of that food, the study suggests.

Can narcissists be moved to show empathy?

Researchers at the University of Surrey and the University of Southampton have investigated whether narcissists can elicit empathy for another person's suffering. It has been well documented that narcissists lack empathy, but why is that the case, and do they have the capacity to change that behaviour? New research suggests that with the right focus, people with narcissistic tendencies can feel empathy for another person's suffering.
The research is published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
“The lack of empathy has a detrimental effect on interpersonal relationships, social bonding and prosocial behaviour,” says  lead researcher, Erica Hepper.