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Women Gain Ability to Read Emotions During Pregnancy

by Rajshri on Dec 17 2009 9:56 PM

Researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK have found that women not only have raging hormones during pregnancy, but also gain the ability to read emotions.

Some 76 pregnant women were asked to assign emotions to computer generated faces at 14 weeks and again at 36 weeks of pregnancy.

New Scientist reports that the women correctly identified happiness and surprise at both stages of pregnancy. However they were better able to identify anger and aggression at later stages of pregnancy. Rebecca Pearson and her colleagues attribute this effect to the hormone progesterone. Pregnant women "might interpret negative or emotional things around them in a slightly more sensitive way," Dr Pearson said.

The details of the study appear in the journal Hormones and Behaviour.




Source-Medindia
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