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Time of India
a day ago
- Health
- Time of India
Study estimates 13 pc of biomedical abstracts published in 2024 involved use of AI
New Delhi: At least 13 per cent of research abstracts published in 2024 could have taken help from a large language model, as they included more of 'style' words seen to be favoured by these AI systems, suggests an analysis of more than 15 million biomedical papers published from 2010 to 2024. Powered by artificial intelligence, large language models are trained on vast amounts of text and can, therefore, respond to human requests in the natural language. Researchers from the University of Tubingen , Germany, said the AI models have caused a drastic shift in the vocabulary used in academic writing, with speculation about their influence in scientific writing being common. The study, published in the journal Science, revealed the emergence of large language models has sparked an increase in the usage of certain "stylistic words", including 'delves', 'showcasing', 'underscores', 'potential', 'findings' and 'critical'. The authors explained that the shift in words used during 2023-2024 were not "content-related nouns", rather style-affecting verbs and adjectives that large language models prefer. For the analysis, the researchers used a public health approach, common during the COVID-19 pandemic, for estimating excess deaths. The method involves comparing deaths during the pandemic with those before to assess the impact of COVID-19 on death rates. The approach modified for this analysis was termed as an "excess word" framework by researchers. The findings show an "unprecedented impact" of AI models on scientific writing in biomedical research, "surpassing the effect of major world events such as the COVID-19 pandemic". "We study vocabulary changes in more than 15 million biomedical abstracts from 2010 to 2024 indexed by PubMed and show how the appearance of (large language models) led to an abrupt increase in the frequency of certain style words," the authors wrote. PubMed is a search engine providing access to biomedical and life sciences literature published from around the world. "This excess word analysis suggests that at least 13.5 per cent of 2024 abstracts were processed with (large language models)," the team wrote. The figure was found to differ across disciplines, countries and journals, hitting 40 per cent in some cases, they said. In computational fields of biomedical research, about 20 per cent of the abstracts involved the use of large language models, which the researchers said could be due to computer science researchers being more familiar with and willing to adopt the technology. In non-English speaking countries, the AI systems can help authors with editing English texts, which could justify their extensive use, the authors said. However, they added that factors such as publication timelines -- which are shorter in computational fields, thereby enabling an earlier detection of AI use in these journals -- would need to be looked at. Therefore, the study's results may be re-evaluated after a couple of publication cycles in all fields and journals for which the methods used here can help, the team said. PTI
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How 5 days of eating ultra-processed food can impact your brain
This just in: Junk food is not good for your health. We jest, but recent research reveals just how damaging ultra-processed foods can be. Research shows that 60% of Americans' daily caloric intake typically comes from ultra-processed foods, which often contain high levels of sodium, refined sugars, cholesterol-spiking fats and other lab-based ingredients. What's more, a recent study linked exposure to these foods to 32 poor health outcomes, such as a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Type 2 diabetes and premature death. In yet another new study, it gets worse. Researchers at the Institute for Diabetes Research and Metabolic Diseases of the Helmholtz Center in Munich and the University of Tubingen in Germany found that those adverse effects might be dangerously easy to acquire, and long-lasting, too. Researchers found that even in the short-term, consuming a high-calorie diet rich in ultra-processed foods impairs brain insulin responsiveness and increases liver fat in healthy men. These effects linger long after the eating period, according to the researchers. Insulin regulates appetite and metabolism, and insulin resistance such as the kind triggered by ultra-processed foods compromises this regulation and contributes to obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cognitive dysfunction. The German team also found a link between ultra-processed food consumption and disruption in the brain's reward learning response. This suggests that as little as five days of overeating can condition the brain for unhealthy eating patterns. As part of the study, 29 healthy male participants between 19 and 27 were divided into a high-caloric diet (HCD) group and a control group. Over five days, the HCD group was asked to eat additional daily calories from ultra-processed snack foods. The control group, meanwhile, maintained their regular diet. The aim of the study was to assess insulin-induced brain activity during three moments: Before the high-caloric diet, during it and one week after subjects returned to eating normally. The HCD group increased their daily caloric intake by 1,200 calories on average, and liver fat content in that group increased dramatically, while brain insulin responsiveness also increased. One week after resuming a regular diet, insulin activity was significantly lower in the brain. Researchers were surprised at the effect short-term HCD had on reward learning, which is the process by which the brain learns to associate behaviours or stimuli with a positive or negative outcome and modify accordingly. After five days of eating ultra-processed foods, the HCD group showed decreased reward sensitivity and increased punishment sensitivity. Ultra-processed foods associated with cognitive impairment: Study Junk food, processed meat paving way for rise of cancer? After a week of normal eating, this trend let up but didn't fully reverse itself. 'Data suggest that a short-term HCD, rich in sugar and saturated fat, has prolonged effects on the brain that outlast the time frame of its consumption,' according to the research team. 'Habitual daily intake of sweet and fatty snacks has been shown to increase neural responses to food, while decreasing the preference for low-fat food independent of changes in body weight and metabolism.' The study is gender specific and more research is required, but the team said, 'the brain response to insulin adapts to short-term changes in diet before weight gain and may facilitate the development of obesity and associated diseases.
Telegraph
02-03-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Why you struggle to get back to your normal diet after a holiday
If you struggle to get back to a healthy eating routine after returning home from a holiday, it could be because your week of indulgence has given you 'obese brain', scientists say. A study has found that while people may commonly bemoan putting on a few pounds from a week or two of all-inclusive food and drink, the real damage is done between the ears. Short-term overconsumption of sugar and fat triggers rapid changes in the brain of a healthy person and makes it behave like that of an obese person, scientists found. They add that the changes in the brain last longer and are slower to return to normal than any impact the food has on the body itself. Prof Stephanie Kullmann of the University of Tubingen in Germany, who led the study, told the Telegraph: 'The changes in the brain outlasted the timeframe of the consumption. 'Behaviorally, we see that participants show changes in reward behavior: Reduced reward sensitivity, this could lead to greater food intake. 'Our data indicate that the brain and behaviour response resemble that of a person with obesity and changes in the brain seem to occur prior to weight gain.' Sugary and fatty foods Scientists gave 18 young and healthy men a high calorie diet filled with sugary and fatty foods for five days. Chocolate bars such as Snickers, Mars, Kinder, Twix and Bounty were given to the participants, as well as M&Ms, Milka brownies, biscuits, salami and crisps. The aim was to increase caloric intake by 1,500 calories above normal, but the participants could only manage 1,200 extra. The men put on no weight, the study found, but there was a substantial change in their brain which is thought to have been caused by the diet. Five days of extra sugar and fat was enough to have an impact on the brains of individuals and make their brains behave like those of an obese person, the scientists found. Brain tests were done before, immediately after and a week after ending the five-day high-calorie diet and showed changes after eating a poorer diet. The brains of these men had higher levels of resistance to insulin for up to a week after the fatty diet ended than the 11 men in a control arm of the trial, data show. Insulin is produced in response to food and sugars in the body because it helps turn the food into energy and some of the insulin goes to the brain to suppress appetite. Resistance to the hormone in the brain occurs in response to high levels of sugar exposure and can lead to persistent hunger, lack of satiety, and makes it easier to put on weight. Data from the study showed that the changes caused by diet were longer lasting in the brain than they were in the rest of the body. While the change in diet altered some biological pathways, they returned to normal quickly, the scientists found, whereas the impact of insulin resistance in the brain was still present a week after finishing the fatty diet. Ultra-processed snacks The scientists write in the study: 'The current study demonstrates that brain insulin responsiveness adapts to short-term dietary changes after overconsumption of broadly available sweet and fatty ultra-processed snacks in addition to their regular diet, in healthy weight men, in the absence of changes in body weight, peripheral insulin sensitivity and food craving.' They add: 'We show that short-term overeating with commonly used ultra-processed high-caloric snacks can trigger liver fat accumulation and short-term disrupted brain insulin action that outlast the time-frame of the high calorie diet in men. 'We postulate that the brain response to insulin adapts to short-term changes in diet before weight gain and may facilitate the development of obesity and associated diseases.' The study is published in Nature Metabolism, a monthly academic journal.
