thought

Dr Aja Murray, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, who led the study, said: "Emotion regulation skills are acquired from early in life and are thought to strengthen gradually over childhood. Children, however, acquire these skills at different rates and slower acquisition may serve as a marker for neurodevelopmental and mental health issues. Our findings suggest that monitoring trajectories of emotion regulation over development could help identity which children are at risk of mental health issues."

Previously, it was thought that dilated cardiomyopathy was mostly caused by faulty copies of a single gene that can be passed down through families, even though in more than half of patients no faulty gene is identified.

“It was the first time someone cared what I thought, asked me my opinions about things,” she said.

The Mediterranean island, they thought, offered ideal conditions for studying the genes and habits that can influence life span: Its population is relatively isolated, with low rates of immigration and little genetic diversity.

Vaupel thought it more likely that the eye-catching numbers reflected poor record keeping.