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pubmed:abstractText |
Social-environmental influences can affect animal cognition and health. Also, human socio-economic status is a covariate factor connecting psychometric test-performance (a measure of cognitive ability), educational achievement, lifetime health, and survival. The complimentary hypothesis, that mechanisms in physiology can explain some covariance between the same traits, is disputed. Possible mechanisms involve metabolic biology affecting integrity and stability of physiological systems during development and ageing. Knowledge of these relationships is incomplete, and underlying processes are challenging to reveal in people. Model animals, however, can provide insights into connections between metabolic biology and physiological stability that may aid efforts to reduce human health and longevity disparities.
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