Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years. Yacold also

partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for

gut health, an investigator-led research program. To learn more about Yachtold, visit yacolt.co.com.j

That's Y-A-K-U-L-T dot-C-O-J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

This is Scientific American 60-second science. I'm Cynthia Graber. Got a minute?

Many of us spend lots of time tapping out words on a keyboard. Now a team of MIT researchers

thinks that how we type might reveal hidden information about the state of our brains.

They designed a study in which a computer could detect which subjects were alert and which

were fatigued just from their typing.

The researchers focused on how long any particular key was depressed.

They designed a program to evaluate the keystrokes and ignore the actual content being typed.

For the study, 14 volunteers, 7 women and 7 men, had to type a Wikipedia article when they were fully alert.

Then they were woken up about 70 to 80 minutes after they'd fallen asleep when they were in deep slumber.

They then had to type out another article while still drowsy.

The result, how long they held down the keys, varied much more when they were sleepy than when they were alert.

The research will be published in the journal Scientific Letters. In their write-up, the team says that such a system could be useful as a

safety feature on software programs for night shifts to identify users who have become

incapacitated by sleepiness. A variation on the program could help diagnose or monitor

neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's

by tracking changes in someone's ability to manipulate the common keyboard.

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American 60 Second Science, I'm Cynthia Graver.

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