BackgroundThe ability to accurately assess the intelligence of other persons finds its place in everyday social interaction and should have important evolutionary consequences.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe used static facial photographs of 40 men and 40 women to test the relationship between measured IQ, perceived intelligence, and facial shape. Both men and women were able to accurately evaluate the intelligence of men by viewing facial photographs. In addition to general intelligence, figural and fluid intelligence showed a significant relationship with perceived intelligence, but again, only in men. No relationship between perceived intelligence and IQ was found for women. We used geometric morphometrics to determine which facial traits are associated with the perception of intelligence, as well as with intelligence as measured by IQ testing. Faces that are perceived as highly intelligent are rather prolonged with a broader distance between the eyes, a larger nose, a slight upturn to the corners of the mouth, and a sharper, pointing, less rounded chin. By contrast, the perception of lower intelligence is associated with broader, more rounded faces with eyes closer to each other, a shorter nose, declining corners of the mouth, and a rounded and massive chin. By contrast, we found no correlation between morphological traits and real intelligence measured with IQ test, either in men or women.ConclusionsThese results suggest that a perceiver can accurately gauge the real intelligence of men, but not women, by viewing their faces in photographs; however, this estimation is possibly not based on facial shape. Our study revealed no relation between intelligence and either attractiveness or face shape.

BackgroundToxoplasma, a protozoan parasite of cats, infects many species of intermediate and paratenic hosts, including about one-third of humans worldwide. After a short phase of acute infection, the tissue cysts containing slowly dividing bradyzoites are formed in various organs and toxoplasmosis proceeds spontaneously in its latent form. In immunocompetent subjects, latent toxoplasmosis was considered asymptomatic. However, dozens of studies performed on animals and humans in the past twenty years have shown that it is accompanied by a broad spectrum of specific behavioural, physiological and even morphological changes. In human hosts, the changes often go in the opposite direction in men and women, and are mostly weaker or non-existent in Rh-positive subjects.MethodsHere, we searched for the indices of lower endurance of the infected subjects by examining the performance of nearly five hundred university students tested for toxoplasmosis and Rh phenotype in two tests, a weight holding test and a grip test.ResultsThe results confirmed the existence of a negative association of latent toxoplasmosis with the performance of students, especially Rh-negative men, in these tests. Surprisingly, but in an accordance with some already published data, Toxoplasma-infected, Rh-positive subjects expressed a higher, rather than lower, performance in our endurance tests.DiscussionTherefore, the results only partly support the hypothesis for the lower endurance of Toxoplasma infected subjects as the performance of Rh-positive subjects (representing majority of population) correlated positively with the Toxoplasma infection.

Toxoplasma, a protozoan parasite of cats, infects many species of intermediate and paratenic hosts, including about one-third of humans worldwide. After a short phase of acute infection, the tissue cysts containing slowly dividing bradyzoites are formed in various organs and toxoplasmosis proceeds spontaneously in its latent form. In immunocompetent subjects, latent toxoplasmosis was considered asymptomatic. However, dozens of studies performed on animals and humans in the past twenty years have shown that it is accompanied by a broad spectrum of specific behavioural, physiological and even morphological changes. In human hosts, the changes often go in the opposite direction in men and women, and are mostly weaker or non-existent in Rh-positive subjects. Here, we searched for the indices of lower endurance of the infected subjects by examining the performance of nearly five hundred university students tested for toxoplasmosis and Rh phenotype in two tests, a weight holding test and a grip test. The results confirmed the existence of a negative association of latent toxoplasmosis with the performance of students, especially Rh-negative men, in these tests. Surprisingly, but in an accordance with some already published data, Toxoplasma-infected, Rhpositive subjects expressed a higher, rather than lower, performance in our endurance tests. Therefore, the results only partly support the hypothesis for the lower endurance of Toxoplasma infected subjects as the performance of Rh-positive subjects (representing majority of population) correlated positively with the Toxoplasma infection.Keywords: Toxoplasmosis; behaviour; endurance; performance; psychology; grip holding test.. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under aThe copyright holder for this preprint (which was . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/264093 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Feb. 13, 2018; 3 Introduction About one third of the world population are infected with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii (Tenter et al., 2000). In immunocompetent subjects, after a short phase of acute toxoplasmosis promoted by tachyzoites, the disease spontaneously proceeds into its latent phase, which is characterized by the presence of tissue cysts with a slowly dividing form of the parasite, bradyzoites, in various organs and anamnestic IgG antibodies in blood (Pappas et al., 2009). Latent toxoplasmosis has been considered asymptomatic for a long time, however, during the past 20 years, about one hundred papers have been published showing that Toxoplasma seropositive and seronegative subjects differ in many personality traits (Flegr & Hrdý, 1994;Flegr et al., 2003), performance in certain psychomotor tests (Havlíček et al., 2001;Pearce et al., 2013), cognitive tests (Dickerson et al., 2014;Ferreira et al., 2013;Flegr et al., 2012;Pearce et al., 2014) and also in the incidence and form of many diseases and disorders (Flegr & Escudero, 2016;Flegr et al., 2014). In some tests, however, Toxoplasma-i...

Background: In the European Union (EU), genetically modified (GM) crops are permitted for cultivation only after a thorough risk assessment and a decision by the European Commission (EC). The central scientific body assessing food-related risks is the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). It aims to provide high-quality scientific advice for EU decision-makers. However, both the way EFSA performs risk assessment and the independence of its panel members have been subjected to consistent criticism. In this paper, I examine part of the environmental risk assessment in the Scientific Opinion issued by the EFSA GMO Panel, specifically, the impacts of GM maize MON810 on honeybees and earthworms. The evaluated EFSA document forms the scientific basis of the pending EC Draft implementing decision to renew the authorisation for the lawful cultivation of MON810. I assess the reliability of scientific information cited in the Opinion, the use of this information by EFSA, and the safety conclusions drawn in a form of an extended peer review.Results: My research indicates that the scientific studies cited in the EFSA Opinion in the sections concerning the possible impacts of GM maize on honeybees and earthworms stem predominantly from reliable sources in terms of authorship, financial support, and status of the study. However, the reliability of the studies varies significantly concerning the ecological relevance of the experiments. Moreover, the body of referenced evidence is insufficient to draw conclusions on risk. Relevantly, several types of shortcomings in the use of scientific information in the risk assessment were identified as prevalent, namely: EFSA omits relevant available studies, selectively cites information, misquotes studies, fails to acknowledge uncertainties, fails to call for further research where needed, and fails to critically interpret studies and their findings. Conclusions:Overall, the findings indicate that the reliability of scientific information and particularly its use by the EFSA GMO Panel produces low-quality scientific advice, which is inconsistent with the Authority Mission Statement. My research would support the call by the European Parliament and NGOs on the EC to withdraw its Draft implementing decision intended to renew the authorisation of MON810 cultivation. which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.2 Nineteen member states opted out of the GM maize MON810 cultivation in the whole or part of their territory in 2015. It was grown on a large scale only in Spain in the remaining EU states [2]. 3 The grounds for prohibition of an authorised GMO may be related to: environmental policy objectives; town and country planning; land use; socio-economic impacts; avoidance of GMO presence in other products; agricultural policy objectives; and public policy [5]. Member states do not need to justify th...

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the herpetic virus, which infects 45–100% people worldwide. Many reports suggest that CMV could impair cognitive functions of infected subjects. Here we searched for indices of effects of CMV on infected subjects’ intelligence and knowledge. The Intelligence Structure Test I-S-T 2000 R was used to compare IQ of 148 CMV-infected and 135 CMV-free university students. Infected students expressed higher intelligence. Paradoxically, their IQ decreased with decreasing concentration of anti-CMV antibodies, which can be used, statistically, as a proxy of the time passed from the moment of infection in young subjects when the age of subjects is statistically controlled. The paradox of seemingly higher intelligence of CMV infected subjects could be explained by the presence of the subpopulation of about 5–10% CMV-positive individuals in the population of “CMV-negative students”. These false negative subjects had probably not only the oldest infections and therefore the lowest concentration of anamnestic antibodies, but also the lowest intelligence among the infected students. Prevalence of CMV infection in all countries is very high, approaching sometimes 90%. Therefore, the total impact of CMV on human intelligence may be large.