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Girls really are better at paying attention than boys, and the difference is clear right after birth.
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difference → see → birth
Scientists tested the attention skills of 130 infants just hours after birth, before any social factors could influence their development.
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factors → test → development
The babies were shown two videos, one recording of a human face and another showing the swinging metal balls of a Newton's cradle.
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babies → show → cradle
Researchers discovered that newborn girls were better at paying attention to the human face than their more easily distracted male counterparts.
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girls → discover → counterparts
According to study supervisor Professor Sir Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre, this could help settle the 'age-old question of whether nature plays any role at all in shaping sex differences'.
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nature → accord → differences
Since the tests were conducted less than 72 hours after birth, scientists think they have uncovered a real biological difference in brain structure.
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they → conduct → structure
Professor Baron-Cohen says: 'The fact that we observe these differences within hours of birth, before extensive postnatal experience has occurred, suggests that prenatal factors play a role.
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factors → say → role
'In other words, it’s nature and nurture, not nature or nurture.
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it → ’ → words
Girls are better at paying attention than boys right after birth, according to the results of a new study (stock image)
The team was prompted to investigate these very early sex differences by a research paper published in 2000.
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team → pay → 2000
This earlier study found that newborn boys spent more of their time looking at objects, while girls spent more time looking at faces.
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girls → find → faces
However, in the last quarter of a century, no one has attempted to replicate those results, and the scientists' methods have come under substantial criticism.
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methods → attempt → criticism
Most importantly, that study used the main investigator themself as the social stimuli, creating an unfair comparison with a static video and potentially biasing the results.
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study → use → results
In their new paper, published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences, the scientists tried to avoid these problems by using side-by-side videos of an unrelated person and a moving object.
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scientists → publish → person
The researchers who were actually measuring the babies' eye gaze also didn't know the sex of the baby or whether they were looking at the social or non-social stimuli – only recording left or right.
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they → measure → stimuli
This prevented any preconceived notions about gender from biasing the results.
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This → prevent → results
With their new methods, the researchers found that both genders preferred to look at the human face, but that girls spent a greater proportion of their time gazing at the social stimuli.
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girls → find → stimuli
Newborn babies were shown two videos, one recording of a human face and another showing the swinging metal balls of a Newton's cradle, while researchers recorded where they looked
On average, newborn girls spent more time looking at the social stimuli, the face, than their male counterparts
While these findings could have big implications for our understanding of brain development, the researchers caution against jumping to conclusions.
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researchers → show → conclusions
Lead author Yumnah Khan, a PhD student at the Autism Research Centre, told the Daily Mail: 'It's very important to stress that it is not nature or nurture, but rather nature and nurture.
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it → tell → Mail
We already know that nurture plays a very significant role in shaping differences between the sexes.
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nurture → know → sexes
The present findings suggest that nature might play somewhat of a role as well because these differences are present at birth, but since we did not directly test whether biological factors are associated with these sex differences, we cannot say for certain that this is the case.'
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this → suggest → differences
The big differences were only found on average at the group level, and don't necessarily mean that every individual girl will be better at paying attention than every individual boy.
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girl → find → boy
However, the researchers are curious to see whether these early sex differences contribute to changes in children's minds, brains and behaviour later in life.
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differences → see → life
In particular, the researchers want to understand conditions like neurodiversity and autism, which is diagnosed twice as often in boys as in girls.
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which → want → girls
Ms Khan also says it is 'possible that early differences might help to explain effects such as why females acquire language faster - potentially due to heightened social interest at birth'.
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females → say → birth
A new 'longitudinal' study, following the same participants over time, is currently underway to investigate this connection further.
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study → follow → connection
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