A new study will examine whether facial attractiveness is determined by fixed aspects that humans cannot change, such as symmetry of the face, or whether it is to do with changing expressions and variation of voice.

Dr Ed Morrison, an evolutionary psychologist from the University of Portsmouth has won £94,000 funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to carry out the research.

Dr Morrison said that previous studies of facial attractiveness have been limited to static images, whereas real faces are dynamic and expressive.

He said: “The old expression ‘the camera never lies’ might be proved wrong. There is a widespread assumption that photographs can capture the entirety of facial attractiveness but I want to challenge this belief by proving that facial movement and vocal variability are also important. There is already evidence to suggest that the same face might not be similarly attractive in a picture and a video.
The camera never lies – or does it?

“Attractiveness is important in areas such as romantic partnerships but also for non-romantic friendships, and in more surprising cases such as hiring, voting and jury decisions. Attractive people are often treated more favourably and are assumed to do better in life.

“Therefore understanding the basis of facial attractiveness judgements is crucial because it influences so many face-to-face interactions.”

Dr Morrison predicts that people will change their facial movement and alter their voice when they are interacting with a person they are attracted to. His research will allow him to quantify exactly how much attractiveness can be changed, and how much cannot.

“I expect men and women will change the way their faces move to increase their appeal to the opposite sex. The face is where we exhibit some of our most explicit signals – it’s the human equivalent of the peacock’s tail. A smile might be fairly easy to interpret but there are more subtle messages going on all the time.”

Dr Morrison will record faces in speed-dating scenarios and then use computer software to produce animations of their facial movement. Using this motion-tracking technique he will then be able to isolate dynamic information based on real people but whose shape has been standardised and stripped of any other distinguishing qualities

Related links:
http://www.port.ac.uk/aboutus/newsandevents/news/title,117715,en.html
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Professor Nairn Wilson CBE, Dean and Head of King’s College London Dental Institute (KCLDI), joined colleagues and students from Portsmouth in welcoming the first cohort of fifth-year dental undergraduates from Kings and meeting representatives from the local dental community.

Students attended their first seminars in the building and had their first sessions in the brand new state-of-the-art clinic. Meanwhile over 80 people from local dental practices toured the new £9 million facility and had an opportunity to see for themselves where dental professionals of the future are being trained. Staff, students and representatives from the South’s dental practices also converged to hear a lecture by Professor Wilson on The Future of Dentistry.

The Dental Academy is a brand new purpose-designed facility to train final-year undergraduate dentists and dental care professionals.  It represents the innovative educational partnership set up between the University of Portsmouth and KCLDI.

The arrival of the first cohort of 20 students from KCLDI marks a significant milestone and the successful culmination of over two years preparatory planning. Professor Wilson said that it was a pleasure to welcome the new students from KCLDI and returning students from the University of Portsmouth to the Dental Academy where he looked forward to a long and successful partnership.

Every year around 80 student dentists from KCLDI will join dental hygiene therapy and nursing students from Portsmouth to train and work together in a team-based model of primary care dentistry for 10 weeks each. Together they will provide high quality, prevention-based minimal intervention care to a diverse range of patients in and around Portsmouth, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The new building development more than doubles the scale of the pre-existing William Beatty building on the Ravelin Park site and adds a further 20 dental training chairs, a radiography suite a state-of-the-art instrument decontamination centre and a suite of teaching rooms.

The Dental Academy plans to work with key stakeholders including local dental professionals, health and other organisations to raise the oral health aspirations of local communities. It will also offer a proactive and dynamic programme of continuing professional development training events for local dental care professionals.

Building and set up costs were funded by grants from the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the NHS. The additional annual running costs will be funded by a contract with Portsmouth NHS and the Dental Service Increment for Teaching (DSIFT).

The University of Portsmouth Dental Academy will sit within the Faculty of Science and replaces the existing School of Professionals Complementary to Dentistry which opened in 2005. The official opening of the new facilities will take place later in the year.

The study by the Universities of Portsmouth and Southampton is the first to examine whether people living in areas with a high level of ethnic diversity influences how they perceive problems in their neighbourhood, such as anti-social behaviour, and whether such mixing influences trust and cohesion with their neighbours. The research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), was rooted in wide political and media debate.

The opinions of over 36,000 people revealed that those living in disadvantaged areas were more likely to perceive high levels of anti-social behaviour such as vandalism, rowdiness and drug dealing than those living in more prosperous areas. But the degree of ethnic diversity had little or no effect on perception. It challenges the view that mixed neighbourhoods have a negative effect on social cohesion.

Dr Liz Twigg, Principal Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth who led the research, said:

“It has been suggested that diverse communities are less cohesive and therefore suffer from problems associated with anti-social behaviour, crime and lack of trust. Our research suggests that this simply isn’t true. In general what people think of their neighbourhood as a place to live is not strongly influenced by the level of ethnic mixing. What is much more important is their material circumstances – the level of deprivation or prosperity in an area.”

The findings were based on analyses of data from the British Crime Survey (BCS), a Home Office survey in which adults are asked about their experiences of and views on crime, antisocial behaviour, levels of neighbourhood trust and whether they feel they can call on their neighbours to help solve community problems.

The information was supported by data from the Index of Multiple Deprivation which identifies the socio-economic character of an area and information from the UK census. Deprived areas are categorised by poverty, high levels of unemployment, low educational attainment, reliance on benefits and reduced access to services. The result is the most detailed analysis to date of the relationship between diversity and residents’ perceptions of their local area.

The data shows that a typical person living in an ‘average’ neighbourhood is about 10 per cent likely to perceive high levels of anti-social behaviour. This is reduced to around five per cent in wealthier neighbourhoods but goes up to around 17 per cent if you are from a more deprived area.

People who have been personal victims of crime are more than twice as likely to have a negative impression of their neighbourhood.

Dr Twigg, from Department of Geography, said: “Although perceptions of anti-social behaviour do have a basis in actual levels of crime, the research showed that neighbourhood socio-economic circumstance is just as important. “In essence, it would appear that your living conditions, individual material household circumstances and immediate surroundings have a strong influence on your view of the world outside your front door.

“Your age, social class and the type of housing you live in will significantly affect your personal point of view, but there is no evidence that ethnic diversity has strong negative social effects. If anything the opposite is true and in fact those living in the most culturally mixed neighbourhood had more positive thoughts about national crime trends.”

The study found that in very mixed neighbourhoods there was minor evidence of less social cohesion and trust. Dr Twigg said: “People were slightly less inclined to believe they live in a close-knit community and may be less likely to intervene if they saw someone in trouble. But where there is a negative effect it is small and always outweighed by neighbourhood deprivation.”

She stresses that perceptions can be as important as actual experience because it influences people’s behaviour and affects their choice of where they live, the schools they choose and influences neighbourhood reputation.

She suggests that governments and local authorities will have more influence over how neighbourhoods are viewed by focusing less on the mix of people in an area and more on the social and economic circumstances facing communities

The department has a research staff of 30 who study subjects as varied as detecting deception; great ape behaviour; football cheats; false memory syndrome; autism; and understanding emotion, among many others.

The £1m in grant wins from prestigious research councils and charities comes at a time of shrinking research budgets in most universities and establishes Portsmouth as a leading group of academics in their field.

Head of department, Sherria Hoskins, said: “I am thrilled our researchers have been so successful in winning crucial funding, a 100 per cent increase on last year, at a time when research budgets are shrinking.

“Portsmouth is winning research funding against the odds because of its unique groups of researchers in key areas: Forensic Psychology; Cultural Psychology, Communication and Ecological Psychology; Study of Emotion and Engagement; Evolutionary and Comparative Psychology.

“In each group we have both internationally renowned and up-coming researchers collaborating on innovative, relevant and cutting-edge research. As well as our own high-fliers, our specialist research centres include renowned academics from other universities around the world which adds to the vibrant and compelling nature of the work going on here.

“Results from this research are fed into high-level publications, conferences and, of course, into our lectures which is one of the reasons we are so popular with students. In second and third years, undergraduate students get a chance to help collect data and many of them then get the research bug and stay on to do postgraduate research with us.”

The department’s mission is to encourage high quality, pioneering research in a number of specialised areas which underpin all its teaching and knowledge transfer activities. Students can study on two undergraduate courses or one of three Master’s level courses.

The department houses specialist laboratories and facilities, hosts a weekly seminar series and visiting speaker programme, and conferences and workshops organised by the Research Centres and Groups.

The department has a research staff of 30 who study subjects as varied as detecting deception; great ape behaviour; football cheats; false memory syndrome; autism; and understanding emotion, among many others.

The £1m in grant wins from prestigious research councils and charities comes at a time of shrinking research budgets in most universities and establishes Portsmouth as a leading group of academics in their field.

Head of department, Sherria Hoskins, said: “I am thrilled our researchers have been so successful in winning crucial funding, a 100 per cent increase on last year, at a time when research budgets are shrinking.

“Portsmouth is winning research funding against the odds because of its unique groups of researchers in key areas: Forensic Psychology; Cultural Psychology, Communication and Ecological Psychology; Study of Emotion and Engagement; Evolutionary and Comparative Psychology.

“In each group we have both internationally renowned and up-coming researchers collaborating on innovative, relevant and cutting-edge research. As well as our own high-fliers, our specialist research centres include renowned academics from other universities around the world which adds to the vibrant and compelling nature of the work going on here.

“Results from this research are fed into high-level publications, conferences and, of course, into our lectures which is one of the reasons we are so popular with students. In second and third years, undergraduate students get a chance to help collect data and many of them then get the research bug and stay on to do postgraduate research with us.”

The department’s mission is to encourage high quality, pioneering research in a number of specialised areas which underpin all its teaching and knowledge transfer activities. Students can study on two undergraduate courses or one of three Master’s level courses.

The department houses specialist laboratories and facilities, hosts a weekly seminar series and visiting speaker programme, and conferences and workshops organised by the Research Centres and Groups.

In the first study to examine links between personality type, mood and performance, a psychologist at the University of Portsmouth found extravert people in a good mood are the most creative thinkers.

Introverts on the other hand are no more creative whether they are in a good or neutral mood.

Dr Lorenzo Stafford, of the psychology department, said his results showed personality and mood play a vital role in creativity.

Extraverts are likely to be more successful at creative tasks because they have a higher than average level of dopamine, the ‘happiness chemical’, in their brains than introverts and this chemical floods the brain at even higher doses when a person is in a good mood, according to Dr Stafford.

“The more outgoing a person is the more active their dopamine system is and a positive mood increases dopamine activity even further in many parts of the brain. It’s effectively a combination of these two things I would suggest leads to greater activity in certain areas of the brain controlling mental ability,” he said.

“This is interesting in itself because it demonstrates that it is the combination of the extravert personality-type in a positive mood which encourages more creative performance, and not simply positive mood alone.”

Dopamine occurs naturally in the brain and affects a range of behaviour including mood, sleep, reward, learning and movement.

Dr Stafford’s research was published recently in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

He said: “This is the first study to investigate how personality type and positive mood affect the brain’s ability to carry out mental – especially creative – tasks and the results are fascinating.

“Previous studies have shown that people in a good mood perform better overall at creativity tasks but finding that character type also influences creativity has added a whole new dimension.

“I hope these results will open the door for more research into how personality influences the mind.”

Eighty-six people took part in the study ranging in age from 18 to 53 years. Participants completed a questionnaire to determine their personality-type then listened to different types of music to put them into a good or neutral mood before completing a word association test, a response test and a memory test.

The word association test was used to assess participants’ creative ability. Subjects were given three words and had to find a common word that can be used to form a new word or phrase. For example ‘horn’ would be the solution for the words ‘french’, ‘car’ and ‘shoe’. Extraverts’ scores virtually doubled in a positive compared to a negative mood, whereas introverts hardly changed at all.

It’s the first time the university has hosted the annual conference of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland which allows national and international scientists to discuss the latest developments in the field.

The conference is hosted by Professor of cellular neurophysiology, Arthur Butt, from the School of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences the University’s world expert on glial cells, and Dr Frank Schubert, from the School of Biological Sciences.

The scientists will focus on progressing research into the interaction between the two different types of cells in the brain. The brain contains two kinds of cell, nerve cells that transmit information and glial cells which were always thought to be simply the packing around the important parts of the brain. Recent research reveals that glial cells are relevant to every pathology in the brain and could hold crucial discoveries about some of the world’s currently incurable brain diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and brain tumours.

Professor Butt said: “”It’s staggering that glial cells are so important yet we know so little about them. Most people haven’t even heard of them and many neurologists are often unaware of their importance. Only in the last 20 years it has become evident that these highly active cells are essential for the nerve cells to function correctly and are involved in virtually every aspect of nervous system.

“With further dedicated research I’m very hopeful that we can make some groundbreaking discoveries into the causes of brain disease.”

The University of Portsmouth boasts the UK’s first dedicated laboratory-based brain tumour research centre under the direction of Professor Geoff Pilkington, a leading brain tumour expert with an international reputation.

It is the first study to show apes, like humans, will hit a playmate then run in order to try to get away with the upper hand.

The research was carried out by behavioural biologist Dr Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth and colleagues lead author Edwin van Leeuwen from the Free University of Amsterdam and Dr Elke Zimmerman from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Germany. The paper is published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

The research is the first to consider if animals respond to unfair situations in a natural social setting. Previous studies have all been carried out in laboratories.

Dr Davila Ross said: “This study shows a new opportunistic side to apes.

“Our findings on gorilla play show important similarities with the children’s game of tag. Not only did the gorillas in our study hit their playmates and then run away chased by their playmates, but they also switched their roles when hit so the chaser became the chased and vice versa.

“Experimental research has already demonstrated that animals with the disadvantage in an unfair situation show an aversion to the unfairness so with that knowledge and our own study we can conclude that humans are not unique in their ability to change their behaviour in social situations depending on whether they have the advantage or disadvantage in an unfair situation.

Scientists cannot categorically state that gorillas play tag but those observed show the same behaviour as humans.

Dr Davila Ross said such unfair play behaviours are likely to be valuable because they allow apes – and humans – to test the limits of what is acceptable behaviour and to test their peers and even their parents.

She said: “This study is the first to empirically show that apes use play to explore the ramifications of unfair social situations.”

The study also revealed that a hard hit resulted in a bigger reaction than a gentle hit, which was likely to be ignored.

The researchers studied the behaviour of great apes at play because their behaviour is less likely to be affected by the strengths and ranks of the competitors as they would be in a serious context, such as interactions related to food.

Dr Davila Ross said it was likely that the lessons learned in play fighting helped apes deal with real conflict, and that by ‘role-playing’ the chaser and the chased the apes would develop more refined and sophisticated communication skills. The study indicated that these chase roles of the gorillas were distinct with the ones doing the chasing predominantly showing a play face and hitting the other ones once they reach them.

Dr Davila Ross is an expert in primate behaviour with special interest in play and laughter and a research fellow in Portsmouth’s psychology department. She and colleagues studied videos of 21 gorillas from six colonies play fighting in five European zoos. The videos on these specific chase behaviours were filmed and collected by Dr Davila Ross over a period of three years.

Research into the behaviour of shrimps exposed to the antidepressant fluoxetine, showed that their behaviour is dramatically affected. The shrimps are five times more likely to swim toward the light instead of away from it – making them more likely to be eaten by fish or birds, which could have devastating effects on the shrimp population.

“Crustaceans are crucial to the food chain and if shrimps’ natural behaviour is being changed because of antidepressant levels in the sea this could seriously upset the natural balance of the ecosystem,” said Dr Alex Ford from the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Marine Sciences.

“Much of what humans consume you can detect in the water in some concentration. We’re a nation of coffee drinkers and there is a huge amount of caffeine found in waste water, for example. It’s no surprise that what we get from the pharmacy will also be contaminating the country’s waterways.”

The research is published in the journal Aquatic Toxicology. The study found that the shrimps’ behaviour changes when they are exposed to the same levels of fluoxetine found in the waste water that flows to rivers and estuaries as a result of the drugs humans excrete in sewage.

Dr Ford’s research was motivated by a species of parasite which can alter the behaviour of aquatic creatures through changing serotonin levels within the brains of the organisms. Serotonin is a neuro-hormone found in many animals, including humans, known to control types of behaviour, such as modulating mood and decreasing anxiety.

Drugs to combat depression in humans are often designed to target levels of serotonin which led to the question of whether they could also alter the behaviour of marine organisms.

Dr Ford said: “Effluent is concentrated in river estuaries and coastal areas, which is where shrimps and other marine life live – this means that the shrimps are taking on the excreted drugs of whole towns.”

Prescriptions for antidepressants have risen rapidly in recent years, according to the Office for National Statistics. In 2002, there were 26.3 million antidepressant prescriptions handed out by doctors in England and Wales – yet the environmental effect of pharmaceuticals in sewage has been largely unexplored.

Dr Ford is hoping to carry out future research on a number of other prescribed drugs on the market known to affect serotonin.

Head of the School of Biological Sciences, Professor Matt Guille, said: “Dr Ford has conducted some beautifully simple research, which potentially shows huge ecological consequences. I hope it will lead the way for further study of prescribed drugs and other substances impacting on the country’s marine-life.”

Dr Dominic Fontana, of the Department of Geography, was studying the ancient map of Portsmouth’s sea defences, drawn between 1586 and 1620, when he realised it seemed to signpost the wreck site.

The map has been returned to Portsmouth, probably for the first time in 400 years and forms the centrepiece of a new temporary exhibition at the Mary Rose Museum from July 2 – October 17.

Dr Fontana said: “The map is remarkably accurate and extremely attractive and is one of the earliest known charts of Portsmouth Harbour, but I was intrigued by the position of the compass rose as it didn’t seem to be in a sensible location.”

“If you tried to navigate into Portsmouth Harbour using the line marked on the chart from the centre of the compass rose to St. Thomas’s church you would run aground on the shallows of Spitbank so, it couldn’t be a navigational route.”

Dr Fontana put the chart into a Geographic Information System (GIS) so it was properly rotated, scaled and coordinated and ran a series of tests. He discovered it was a highly accurate map showing important locations such as church towers and forts in their correct locations. Then he decided to overlay another GIS map showing the wreck of the Mary Rose and was surprised to see the wreck site fitted perfectly with the fleur-de-lis of the compass rose.

“This seems something of a remarkable coincidence,” he said. “It may suggest the position of the compass rose could have been intended as a means of locating the wreck of one of the most famous of all English warships.

“I believe Sir Walter Raleigh recorded during Elizabeth I’s reign that the wreck could be seen from the surface and this would help explain how the map-maker knew the precise location.”

The map captures extraordinary detail including deep water, mudflats, beaches, settlements and defensive features of the surrounding landscape.

Dr Fontana said: “The seabed topography is a very important feature of the defence of Portsmouth as it tightly constrains the route and timing of a potential sea-borne attack on the town and harbour. It is highly likely this map was drawn to plan the defence of Portsmouth. It was certainly drawn after the French invasion attempt of 1545 in which the Mary Rose was sunk and quite possibly before the Spanish Armada in 1588.”

The map forms part of a major exhibition at the Mary Rose Museum. Mapping Portsmouth’s Tudor Past, which brings together, for the first time, several important maps from The British Library, UK Hydrographic Office and the Admiralty Library. All but one of these maps are hand-drawn and are works of art in their own right. Together they give a fascinating insight into Tudor Portsmouth and the view of their world 500 years ago.

Dr David Starkey, Trustee of the Mary Rose Trust, said: “The art and science of map-making (‘cartography’), blossomed during Henry VIII’s reign and reached new heights under Elizabeth I. The whole southern coastline was mapped, from the Wash to Milford Haven, and fortifications were built to guard possible landing points. The navy was also transformed, with bigger and better ships requiring deep-sea ports.

“Portsmouth was one of the most important of these new royal naval bases and the Solent became, as it was to remain to the 20th century, a key to England’s defences. The strategic significance of the Solent meant that some of the earliest accurate maps in the country are of this area.

“The Mary Rose Museum has brought together a unique collection of these Tudor maps and charts to make this temporary exhibition. The maps say a great deal about the state of the nation’s defences. They show a sophistication that is impressive for any age. But they also have a beauty that makes them works of art as well as planning documents for war.”

The report, by Dr Lorenzo Stafford of the University of Portsmouth’s psychology department, says heavy caffeine users are the only known ‘drug users’ to see their habit in a positive light.

His study investigated people’s underlying feelings about caffeine and the results are published in the latest issue of Psychology of Addicted Behaviors.

He said: “Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, cola, Red Bull and even in chocolate. It is the most widely consumed drug in the world, with all of the hallmarks of more addictive drugs, including withdrawal symptoms, tolerance and dependence.

“Our findings show that the more caffeine a person consumes, the more it is likely they will see caffeine as a good thing.”

For the purposes of the study, Dr Stafford focused on tea and coffee drinkers. The research used an implicit association task to test the underlying opinions of people who drink no caffeine, those who drink one-three cups a day, and those who drink five or more cups a day. To disguise the true nature of the study, participants were asked to drink only water from the night before they took part.

The findings show that those who never drink caffeine and those who are moderate users were more likely to associate the word caffeine with negative words, including ‘slime’, ‘failure’ and ‘bad’.

Heavy caffeine drinkers on the other hand were faster to categorise caffeine with positive words including ‘joy’, ‘success’ and good’.

Dr Stafford said: “We were surprised that moderate users of caffeine categorised caffeine as negative. It was also interesting that despite their different opinions on caffeine, both moderate and high coffee drinkers showed withdrawal symptoms compared to those who never drank tea or coffee.

“Heavy smokers usually associate tobacco with negative things in similar tests, possibly related to the theory they might ‘need’ tobacco but not ‘like’ it. Caffeine is also addictive but heavy consumers of coffee and tea evidently don’t feel their habit carries a social stigma.”