New Study: Pregnant Women May Have Emotional Superpowers

Posted by Josh Harrison , Dec, 2009 @ 9:13 am

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Pregnant women.

Here’s the story:

RAGING hormones during pregnancy prompt mood swings, but may also lead to a heightened ability to recognise threatening or aggressive faces. This may have evolved because it makes future mothers hyper-vigilant, yet it could also make them more vulnerable to anxiety.

Previous studies have suggested that a woman’s ability to correctly identify fearful or disgusted facial expressions varies according to her stage of the menstrual cycle, with perception heightened on days associated with high levels of the hormone progesterone. Since levels of progesterone and other hormones rise dramatically in late pregnancy, Rebecca Pearson and her colleagues at the University of Bristol in the UK investigated whether the ability to read faces varies during pregnancy.

They asked 76 pregnant women to assign one of six emotions to 60 computer-generated faces before the 14th week of pregnancy, and again after the 34th week. Faces expressing happiness and surprise tended to be correctly assigned at both stages of pregnancy, but for faces expressing fear, anger and disgust, the accuracy rates were higher in late pregnancy.

That’s pretty cool and all, but here’s what you need to take away from all this:

The finding builds on a recent study by Ben Jones of the University of Aberdeen in the UK who found that pregnant women – and women in stages of the menstrual cycle where progesterone levels spike – are better at identifying faces showing signs of sickness. “It’s preventing them from becoming sick by interacting with people who are ill,” he says.

Geeks, I think you know what this means: pregnant women are going to be humanity’s first line of defense against the zombie horde. Got a buddy you think might be on his way to slavering undead monstrosity? Stick him in front of your favorite mom-to-be and get a second opinion! Seriously, though, this is interesting stuff. I would never have thought about it, but now that I read the article, it makes a lot of evolutionary sense. If we see a rise in pregnant detectives and superheroes, you know who to blame. Or to credit.

[Via New Scientist]

[Image Source: Babble]

Tags: biology, detectives, empathy, Evolution, Juno, Most Fruitful Yuki, natural selection, pregnance, science, superpowers, The Shadow