New roadmap to prevent pandemics centers on protecting biodiversity

An international team of 25 scientists has proposed a roadmap for how to prevent the next pandemic by conserving natural areas and promoting biodiversity, thereby providing animals with enough food, safe havens and distance to limit contact and the transfer of pathogens to humans.

Pandemics begin when disease-harboring animals, such as bats, come in close proximity with people, livestock or other animals and pass on new pathogens.

Viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1, Nipah, Hendra and possibly Ebola have all fatally spilled over from bats to humans, sometimes through an intermediate host.

"The world is focused on how can we detect and then contain a novel pathogen once it is circulating in humans, rather than how can we prevent that pathogen from entering the human population in the first place," said Raina Plowright, professor in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health at Cornell University, and first author of the paper, "Ecological Countermeasures to Prevent Pathogen Spillover and Subsequent Pandemics," published in Nature Communications.

The pandemic-prevention strategy is based on insights from a pair of 2022 papers that serve as a case study applicable to all animals that potentially carry zoonotic diseases.

Those papers -- about how bats can spread fatal Hendra virus to horses and people -- explained that when bats lose their natural habitats and winter food sources, their large populations splinter and they migrate in small groups to agricultural and urban areas.

They also become stressed, partly due to inadequate food sources, and they shed more virus in their urine.

The virus falls to the ground where grazing horses become infected; horses in turn can then infect people.

But when natural habitats can provide adequate food, especially in fallow winter months, the bats return to these habitats, aggregate in large numbers, and stop shedding virus.

The roadmap uses this and other case studies to explain the mechanisms linking environmental change and spillover of pathogens from animals to humans, and identifies ecological interventions to disrupt these links and policy frameworks to implement them.

Ecological interventions begin by protecting the places where animals eat.

"We need to make sure there's always an abundant supply of food available at all times of year, especially when animals are in stressful life history stages like reproduction and migration," Plowright said.

Next, it's important to protect where animals may roost or aggregate, as tens of thousands of bats can roost in canopies and caves, so when these areas are disturbed, these populations can splinter, move and shed more virus.

Also, cave dwelling bats may not have other caves to move to, in which case they stay put, become more stressed and likely shed more virus.

Protecting lands that act as buffers between people and wildlife is also key.

"There are trillions of microbes in nature, but we rarely actually get sick, because there are many, many barriers between us and new pathogens," Plowright said.

Lastly, for communities who come in contact with animals, it's important to ensure people have the protection that they need to avoid pathogen exposure, Plowright said.

The study's authors emphasize the need for an international agency or panel that can assess and synthesize data on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response and collect metrics on intactness of landscapes, ecological integrity and biodiversity.

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Beethoven's genes reveal low predisposition for beat synchronization

Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the most celebrated musicians in human history, has a rather low genetic predisposition for beat synchronization, according to a Current Biologystudy co-authored by Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and theMax Planck Institutes for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

The question of to what extent are exceptional human achievements influenced by genetic factors dates back to the early days of human genetics but seems to be easier to address today as modern molecular methods make it possible to analyze DNA of individuals throughout history.

An international team of researchers analyzed Beethoven's DNA to investigate his genetic musical predisposition, an ability closely related to musicality, by using sequences from a 2023 study in which the composer's genetic material was extracted from strands of his hair.

"For Beethoven, we used his recently sequenced DNA to calculate a polygenic score as an indicator for his genetic predisposition for beat synchronization," said Tara Henechowicz, B.Mus.Hons, M.A., a current PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto, recent visiting graduate student with the Vanderbilt Human Genetics Program, and the paper's second author.

"Interestingly, Beethoven, one of the most celebrated musicians in history, had an unremarkable polygenic score for general musicality compared to population samples from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and Vanderbilt's BioVU Repository," she said.

The authors noted that it would be wrong to conclude from Beethoven's low polygenic score that his musical abilities were unexceptional.

"Our aim was to use this as an example of the challenges of making genetic predictions for an individual who lived over 200 years ago," Henechowicz said.

"The mismatch between the DNA-based prediction and Beethoven's musical genius provides a valuable teaching moment, because it demonstrates that DNA tests cannot give us a definitive answer about whether a given child will end up being musically gifted."

Henechowicz said the study does not discount that DNA contributes to people's musical skills, noting that prior studies have found an average heritability, which is the proportion of individual differences explained by all genetic factors, of 42% for musicality.

"In the current era of 'big data' such as Vanderbilt's BioVU repository, we have had the opportunity to look in fine detail at large groups of people to uncover the genetic underpinnings of traits such as rhythm ability or being musically active. The current study and other recent work also suggest that environment plays a key role in musical ability and engagement as well," said co-author Reyna Gordon, PhD, associate professor of Otolaryngology at VUMC and graduate co-advisor to Henechowicz.

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Persian plateau unveiled as crucial hub for early human migration out of Africa

A new study combining genetic, palaeoecological, and archaeological evidence has unveiled the Persian Plateau as a pivotal geographic location serving as a hub for Homo sapiens during the early stages of their migration out of Africa.

This revelation sheds new light on the complex journey of human populations, challenging previous understandings of our species' expansion into Eurasia.

The study, published in Nature Communications, highlights a crucial period between approximately 70,000 to 45,000 years ago when human populations did not uniformly spread across Eurasia, leaving a gap in our understanding of their whereabouts during this time frame.

Key findings from the research include:

• The Persian plateau as a hub for early human settlement: Using a novel genetic approach combined with palaeoecological modelling, the study revealed the Persian Plateau as the region where from population waves that settled all of Eurasia originated.
• This region emerged as a suitable habitat capable of supporting a larger population compared with other areas in West Asia.
• Genetic resemblance in ancient and modern populations: The genetic component identified in populations from the Persian Plateau underlines its long-lasting differentiation in the area, compatible with the hub nature of the region, and is ancestral to the genetic components already known to have inhabited the Plateau.
• Such a genetic signature was detected thanks to a new approach that disentangles 40,000 years of admixture and other confounding events. This genetic connection underscores the Plateau's significance as a pivotal location for early human settlement and subsequent migrations.

Study co-author Professor Michael Petraglia, Director of Griffith University's Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, provided a much clearer picture of these early human movements.

"Our multidisciplinary study provides a more coherent view of the ancient past, offering insights into the critical period between the Out of Africa expansion and the differentiation of Eurasian populations," Professor Petraglia said.

"The Persian Plateau emerges as a key region, underlining the need for further archaeological explorations."

First author Leonardo Vallini of the University of Padova, Italy, said: "The discovery elucidates a 20,000 year long portion of the history of Homo sapiens outside of Africa, a timeframe during which we interacted with Neanderthal populations, and sheds light on the relationships between various Eurasian populations, providing crucial clues for understanding the demographic history of our species across Europe, East Asia, and Oceania."

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Tiniest 'starquake' ever detected

An orange dwarf star has yielded the tiniest 'starquakes' ever recorded, measured by an international team of scientists.

Named Epsilon Indi, the star is the smallest and coolest dwarf star yet observed with solar-like oscillations -- "starquakes" like those shown by the Sun.

These oscillations provide indirect glimpses of stellar interiors -- just as earthquakes tell us about Earth's interior -- and so are important sources of information about the makeup of the star.

The measurements were taken by an international team, led by the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, and including researchers from the University of Birmingham.

The study is published in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters.

The quakes were detected using a technique dubbed asteroseismology, which measures oscillations in stars.

Using the ESPRESSO spectrograph, mounted at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), the team was able to record the oscillations with unprecedented precision.

Lead author Tiago Campante, of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of Porto, said: "The extreme precision level of these observations is an outstanding technological achievement. Importantly, this detection conclusively shows that precise asteroseismology is possible down to cool dwarfs with surface temperatures as low as 4200 degrees Celsius, about 1000 degrees cooler than the Sun's surface, effectively opening up a new domain in observational astrophysics."

Orange dwarf stars have recently become a focus in the search for habitable planets and extraterrestrial life.

Professor Bill Chaplin, Head of the School of Physics & Astronomy at Birmingham, and a member of the team, said: "The mismatch between the predicted and observed sizes of these stars has implications for finding planets around them. If we use the most successful planet-finding technique -- the so-called transit method -- we get the size of the planet relative to the size of the star; if we don't size-up the star correctly, the same will be true of any small planet we have found." The detection of oscillations will help to understand and minimise these discrepancies, and improve the theoretical models of stars.

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Climate change will see Australia's soil emit CO2 and add to global warming

New Curtin University research has shown the warming climate will turn Australia's soil into a net emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2), unless action is taken.

Soil helps to keep the planet cool by absorbing carbon, however as the climate gets warmer its ability to retain carbon decreases -- and in some instances can start to release some carbon back into the air.

A global research team -- led by Professor Raphael Viscarra Rossel from Curtin's School of Molecular and Life Sciences -- predicted the changes in the amount of carbon in Australia's soil between now and the year 2100.

To do so, the team ran simulations using three different paths for society: an eco-focused 'sustainable' scenario, a 'middle-of-the-road' scenario and another which predicted a continued reliance on 'fossil-fuelled development'.

It found Australian soil will be a net emitter and could account for 8.3 per cent of Australia's total current emissions under the 'sustainable' scenario and more than 14 per cent by 2045 under the 'middle-of-the-road' and 'fossil-fuelled' scenarios.

By 2100, soil emissions under both scenarios are predicted to account for an even higher proportion of total emissions, but the predictions are more uncertain.

While some areas with arable farmland could continue to store carbon, the study found it would not be enough to offset the amounts of carbon lost from the soil in areas which are more sensitive to warmer weather, such as coastal regions and Australia's vast rangelands.

Australian soil holds an estimated 28 gigatons of carbon, 70 per cent of which is stored in these rangelands.

"Unless farming methods are further improved so farmland soils can continue to store carbon, any gains and benefit will likely decrease by 2045 and worsen in time, if the Earth continues to warm at its current rate," Professor Viscarra Rossel said.

"This means Australia's soil could release even more carbon into the air instead of storing it, which will in turn make climate change worse.

"If emissions continue at the current rate, the Earth's temperature is expected to reach 2 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures sometime this century, which is predicted to have dire consequences and

potentially catastrophic impacts for the planet."

Professor Viscarra Rossel said more sustainable pathways and improved management and conservation of soils were essential for Australia to meet its emissions reduction goals.

"Ensuring Australia's rangeland soils can maintain their carbon stocks is imperative: capturing and storing additional carbon will require interdisciplinary science, innovation, cultural awareness and effective policies" Professor Viscarra Rossel said.

"It will be challenging, given the rangelands' drier and more variable climate, its relatively sparse vegetation and other factors such as bushfires -- however, only a slight change over such large areas will make a positive difference.

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Stem cell model offers first glimpse of early human embryonic development

It's one of life's most defining moments -- that crucial step in embryonic development, when an indistinct ball of cells rearranges itself into the orderly three-layered structure that sets the stage for all to come. Known as gastrulation, this crucial process unfolds in the third week of human development. "Gastrulation is the origin of our own individualization, the emergence of our axis," says Rockefeller's Ali Brivanlou. "It is the first moment that separates our heads from our behinds."

Observing the molecular underpinnings of this pivotal event would go a long way toward helping scientists prevent miscarriages and developmental disorders. But studying human gastrulation has proven both technologically difficult and ethically complicated, and thus current approaches have had limited success in expanding our understanding of early human development. Now Brivanlou and colleagues have demonstrated how a stem cell model system known as a blastoid can allow the study of the nuances of human gastrulation in the presence of pre-implantation extra-embryonic cell types. Their study, published in Stem Cell Reports, describes the scientific and clinical potential of this new platform.

"Gastrulation was a tremendous black box. We had never seen ourselves at that stage," Brivanlou says. "This moves us closer to understanding how we begin."

A better blastocyst

Prior to implantation, an embryo is a ball of about 250 cells organized as a blastocyst. This elusive ball of cells was difficult to study directly, so scientists developed blastoids -- stem-cell-based blastocyst models. Blastoids can be cloned, experimentally manipulated, and programmed, allowing scientists to study identical blastoids over and over again.

The question was whether blastoids could gastrulate in vitro. Unlike a blastocyst in vivo, which rolls around in the uterus until it attaches to maternal tissue, blastoids were good at modeling the ball of cells from which life emerges, but it remained unclear whether this in vitro model could model later stages of human development. That is, until Brivanlou developed a platform to allow blastoids to attach in vitro, and thereby progress toward gastrulation.

"We were then able to see epiblast symmetry breaking, marked by BRA expression, for the first time with the high molecular resolution," says Riccardo De Santis, a research associate in the Brivanlou lab and lead author on the study. "This allowed us to start asking more detailed questions about the earliest moments of life."

With this unprecedented clarity, the team directly observed two key moments in gastrulation: the first epiblast symmetry-breaking event and the emergence of the molecular markers of the primitive streak and mesoderm upon in vitro attachment.

The primitive streak is a structure that marks the beginning of gastrulation and lays the foundation for the three primary layers of the embryo. One of those layers, the mesoderm, forms during gastrulation and gives rise to muscles, bones, and the circulatory system. The team discovered that, as early as seven days after attachment, they were already able to use molecular markers to detect the earliest signature of a nascent primitive streak and mesodermal cells.

To confirm their findings, the team also compared the blastoid results with data from in vitro attached human embryos and demonstrated that blastoids express the same genes in vitro that a regular embryo would at that stage in vivo, a strong demonstration of the power of blastoids as models for human embryonic development. Further highlighting the power of the lab's in vitro attached blastoid system, the team then used it to demonstrate that pathways that regulate the rise of the primitive streak and mesoderm in vivo also regulate blastoids symmetry breaking in vitro -- all with nothing but stem-cell-derived blastoid models.

Along the way, the team also demonstrated that gastrulation in vitro can begin at day 12, earlier than once thought. "This will change textbooks," Brivanlou says. "We've contributed to redefining the molecular signature and timing of the onset of gastrulation upon in vitro attachment."

Therapeutic possibilities

The results demonstrate that blastoids, when combined with the Brivanlou lab's unique attachment platform, are now capable of conveying insights into early human development that have long been inaccessible. De Santis envisions a future in which blastoid-based research leads to advancements in diagnosing and treating developmental disorders, or offers insights into potential causes of early miscarriages during gastrulation.

"Many couples can't have babies because the embryo doesn't attach properly, and many miscarriages occur in the first few weeks of pregnancy," De Santis explains. "We now have a model system that can help us understand the molecular mechanism that defines whether a pregnancy will be successful or not." In the near future, De Santis hopes to combine this method with machine learning to help predict pregnancy outcomes and the trajectories of developmental disorders by observing how model blastoids built with particular genetic makeups fare in vitro.

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Common household chemicals pose new threat to brain health, study finds

A team of researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has provided fresh insight into the dangers some common household chemicals pose to brain health. They suggest that chemicals found in a wide range of items, from furniture to hair products, may be linked to neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis and autism spectrum disorders.

Neurological problems impact millions of people, but only a fraction of cases can be attributed to genetics alone, indicating that unknown environmental factors are important contributors.

The new study published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, discovered that some common home chemicals specifically affect the brain's oligodendrocytes, a specialized cell type that generates the protective insulation around nerve cells.

"Loss of oligodendrocytes underlies multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases," said the study's principal investigator, Paul Tesar, the Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor of Innovative Therapeutics and director of the Institute for Glial Sciences at the School of Medicine. "We now show that specific chemicals in consumer products can directly harm oligodendrocytes, representing a previously unrecognized risk factor for neurological disease."

On the premise that not enough thorough research has been done on the impact of chemicals on brain health, the researchers analyzed over 1,800 chemicals that may be exposed to humans. They identified chemicals that selectively damaged oligodendrocytes belong to two classes: organophosphate flame retardants and quaternary ammonium compounds. Since quaternary ammonium compounds are present in many personal-care products and disinfectants, which are being used more frequently since the COVID-19 pandemic began, humans are regularly exposed to these chemicals. And many electronics and furniture include organophosphate flame retardants.

The researchers used cellular and organoid systems in the laboratory to show that quaternary ammonium compounds cause oligodendrocytes to die, while organophosphate flame retardants prevented the maturation of oligodendrocytes.

They demonstrated how the same chemicals damage oligodendrocytes in the developing brains of mice. The researchers also linked exposure to one of the chemicals to poor neurological outcomes in children nationally.

"We found that oligodendrocytes -- but not other brain cells -- are surprisingly vulnerable to quaternary ammonium compounds and organophosphate flame retardants," said Erin Cohn, lead author and graduate student in the School of Medicine's Medical Scientist Training Program. "Understanding human exposure to these chemicals may help explain a missing link in how some neurological diseases arise."

The association between human exposure to these chemicals and effects on brain health requires further investigation, the experts warned. Future research must track the chemical levels in the brains of adults and children to determine the amount and length of exposure needed to cause or worsen disease.

"Our findings suggest that more comprehensive scrutiny of the impacts of these common household chemicals on brain health is necessary," Tesar said. "We hope our work will contribute to informed decisions regarding regulatory measures or behavioral interventions to minimize chemical exposure and protect human health."

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Quantum tornado provides gateway to understanding black holes

Scientists have for the first time created a giant quantum vortex to mimic a black hole in superfluid helium that has allowed them to see in greater detail how analogue black holes behave and interact with their surroundings.

Research led by the University of Nottingham, in collaboration with King's College London and Newcastle University, have created a novel experimental platform: a quantum tornado.

They have created a giant swirling vortex within superfluid helium that is chilled to the lowest possible temperatures.

Through the observation of minute wave dynamics on the superfluid's surface, the research team has shown that these quantum tornados mimic gravitational conditions near rotating black holes.

The research has been published today in Nature.

Lead author of the paper, Dr Patrik Svancara from the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Nottingham explains: "Using superfluid helium has allowed us to study tiny surface waves in greater detail and accuracy than with our previous experiments in water. As the viscosity of superfluid helium is extremely small, we were able to meticulously investigate their interaction with the superfluid tornado and compare the findings with our own theoretical projections."

The team constructed a bespoke cryogenic system capable of containing several litres of superfluid helium at temperatures lower than -271 °C. At this temperature liquid helium acquires unusual quantum properties.

These properties typically hinder the formation of giant vortices in other quantum fluids like ultracold atomic gases or quantum fluids of light, this system demonstrates how the interface of superfluid helium acts as a stabilizing force for these objects.

Dr Svancara continues: "Superfluid helium contains tiny objects called quantum vortices, which tend to spread apart from each other. In our set-up, we've managed to confine tens of thousands of these quanta in a compact object resembling a small tornado, achieving a vortex flow with record-breaking strength in the realm of quantum fluids."

Researchers uncovered intriguing parallels between the vortex flow and the gravitational influence of black holes on the surrounding spacetime.

This achievement opens new avenues for simulations of finite-temperature quantum field theories within the complex realm of curved spacetimes.

Professor Silke Weinfurtner, leading the work in the Black Hole Laboratory where this experiment was developed, highlights the significance of this work: "When we first observed clear signatures of black hole physics in our initial analogue experiment back in 2017, it was a breakthrough moment for understanding some of the bizarre phenomena that are often challenging, if not impossible, to study otherwise. Now, with our more sophisticated experiment, we have taken this research to the next level, which could eventually lead us to predict how quantum fields behave in curved spacetimes around astrophysical black holes."

This groundbreaking research is funded by a £5 million grant from the Science Technology Facilities Council, distributed among teams at seven leading UK institutions, including the University of Nottingham, Newcastle University and King's College London.

The project has also been supported by both the UKRI Network grant on Quantum Simulators for Fundamental Physics and the Leverhulme Research Leaders Fellowship held by Professor Silke Weinfurtner.

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Enormous ice loss from Greenland glacier

Ground-based measuring devices and aircraft radar operated in the far northeast of Greenland show how much ice the 79° N-Glacier is losing. According to measurements conducted by the Alfred Wegener Institute, the thickness of the glacier has decreased by more than 160 metres since 1998. Warm ocean water flowing under the glacier tongue is melting the ice from below. High air temperatures cause lakes to form on the surface, whose water flows through huge channels in the ice into the ocean. One channel reached a height of 500 metres, while the ice above was only 190 metres thick, as a research team has now reported in the scientific journal The Cryosphere.

A rustic camp in northeast Greenland was one of the bases for deploying autonomous measuring devices with modern radar technology by helicopter in a part of the 79° N-Glacier that is difficult to access.

Measurement flights with the polar aircraft of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and satellite data were also incorporated into a scientific study that has now been published in the scientific journal The Cryosphere. This study examines how global warming affects the stability of a floating ice tongue.

This is of great importance for the remaining ice shelves in Greenland as well as those in Antarctica, as instability of the ice shelf usually results in an acceleration of the ice flow, which would lead to a greater sea level rise.

"Since 2016, we have been using autonomous instruments to carry out radar measurements on the 79° N-Glacier, from which we can determine melt and thinning rates," says AWI glaciologist Dr Ole Zeising, the first author of the publication.

"In addition, we used aircraft radar data from 1998, 2018 and 2021 showing changes in ice thickness. We were able to measure that the 79° N-Glacier has changed significantly in recent decades under the influence of global warming."

The study shows how the combination of a warm ocean inflow and a warming atmosphere affects the floating ice tongue of the 79° N-Glacier in northeast Greenland.

Only recently, an AWI oceanography team published a modelling study on this subject.

The unique data set of observations now presented shows that extremely high melt rates occur over a large area near the transition to the ice sheet.

In addition, large channels form on the underside of the ice from the land side, probably because the water from huge lakes drains through the glacier ice.

Both processes have led to a strong thinning of the glacier in recent decades.

Due to extreme melt rates, the ice of the floating glacier tongue has become 32 % thinner since 1998, especially from the grounding line where the ice comes into contact with the ocean.

In addition, a 500-metre-high channel has formed on the underside of the ice, which spreads towards the inland.

The researchers attribute these changes to warm ocean currents in the cavity below the floating tongue and to the runoff of surface meltwater as a result of atmospheric warming.

A surprising finding was that melt rates have decreased since 2018.

A possible cause for this is a colder ocean inflow. "The fact that this system reacts on such short time scales is astonishing for systems that are actually inert such as glaciers," says Prof Dr Angelika Humbert, who is also involved in the study.

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If faces look like demons, you could have this extraordinary condition

Imagine if every time you saw a face, it appeared distorted. Well, for those who have a very rare condition known as prosopometamorphopsia (PMO), which causes facial features to appear distorted, that is reality.

As the Dartmouth-based website about prosopometamorphopsia explains, "'Prosopo' comes from the Greek word for face 'prosopon' while 'metamorphopsia' refers to perceptual distortions.''' Specific symptoms vary from case to case and can affect the shape, size, color, and position of facial features. The duration of PMO also varies; it "can last for days, weeks, or even years."

A new Dartmouth study published in the "Clinical Pictures" section of The Lancet reports on a unique case of a patient with PMO.

The research is the first to provide accurate and photorealistic visualizations of the facial distortions experienced by an individual with PMO.

The patient, a 58-year-old male with PMO, sees faces without any distortions when they are viewed on a screen and on paper, but he sees distorted faces that appear "demonic" when viewed in-person.

Most PMO cases however, see distortions in all contexts, so his case is especially rare and presented a unique opportunity to accurately depict his distortions.

For the study, the researchers took a photograph of a person's face.

Then, they showed the patient the photograph on a computer screen while he looked at the real face of the same person.

The researchers obtained real-time feedback from the patient on how the face on the screen and the real face in front of him differed, as they modified the photograph using computer software to match the distortions perceived by the patient.

"In other studies of the condition, patients with PMO are unable to assess how accurately a visualization of their distortions represents what they see because the visualization itself also depicts a face, so the patients will perceive distortions on it too," says lead author Antônio Mello, a PhD student in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth.

In contrast, this patient doesn't see distortions on a screen.

This means that the researchers were able to modify the face in the photograph, and the patient could accurately compare how similar his perception of the real face was to the manipulated photograph.

"Through the process, we were able to visualize the patient's real-time perception of the face distortions," says Mello.

In their research with other PMO cases, the co-authors state that some of their PMO participants have seen health professionals who wanted to help but diagnosed them with another health condition, not PMO.

"We've heard from multiple people with PMO that they have been diagnosed by psychiatrists as having schizophrenia and put on anti-psychotics, when their condition is a problem with the visual system," says senior author Brad Duchaine, a professor of psychological and brain sciences and principal investigator of the Social Perception Lab at Dartmouth.

"And it's not uncommon for people who have PMO to not tell others about their problem with face perception because they fear others will think the distortions are a sign of a psychiatric disorder," says Duchaine.

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