Researchers in Canada have suggested that daily contraceptives could alter women’s brains and make them risk-takers. According to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology, researchers from Montreal analysed the effects of oral contraceptives on the brain. Specifically, they investigated the role of naturally and synthetically produced hormones on the way fear is processed. 

“When prescribed [combined oral contraceptives], girls and women are informed of various physical side effects, for example, that the hormones they will be taking will abolish their menstrual cycle and prevent ovulation,” said study author Alexandra Brouillard, a researcher at the University of Quebec in Montreal, in a statement. Yet, the researchers claim that the pill’s effects on the brain’s development have not been thoroughly investigated. 

Therefore, the researchers from Montreal enlisted 139 women, ages 23 to 35, who were using oral contraceptives at the time, who had stopped taking the pill, or who had never used hormonal birth control. They also enlisted 41 men. 

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The team found that compared to men, the women on birth control had a “thinner ventromedial prefrontal cortex,” which is responsible for “emotion regulation, such as decreasing fear signals” in safe situations. Ms Brouillard noted that this thinning could mean an impairment of emotional regulation, which could make them risk-takers. 

However, the researchers also noted that this thinning could be reversed once consumption of the pill stops since the former birth control users did not demonstrate the same results. 

In the study, the team said that further research is still needed to confirm the findings. “The objective of our work is not to counter the use of [combined oral contraceptives], but it is important to be aware that the pill can have an effect on the brain. Our aim is to increase scientific interest in women’s health and raise awareness about early prescription of COCs and brain development, a highly unknown topic,” said Ms Brouillard. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will arrive in New Delhi tomorrow to participate in the 5th India-US 2 2 Ministerial Dialogue.

US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel, while speaking on Blinken’s visit to India, said: “India is a country that we have a deep partnership with. He (Blinken) will be going for the 2 2 Ministerial Dialogue along with Secretary of Defence Lloyd J. Austin. So I expect, of course, that deepening this security cooperation in partnership, will be, one of the many topics that are discussed.”

“It was something that was obviously raised during Prime Minister Modi’s state visit earlier this year. And I know the secretary looks forward to being there and in engaging directly, with his counterparts on this. But I will let the trip take place before we talk more about it,” he added.

The US State Department recently said that a high-profile US delegation led by Secretary of State Blinken and also featuring Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin III, will arrive in New Delhi for the 2 2 Ministerial Dialogue.

The dialogue will provide a platform for top-level discussions between the US and India, addressing critical bilateral and global matters, with special emphasis on developments unfolding in the Indo-Pacific region.

US State Secretary Blinken and Defence Secretary Austin will meet with their Indian counterparts, Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar and Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh, as well as other senior officials.

The discussions are expected to encompass a wide spectrum of issues, including strengthening bilateral relations, addressing global concerns, and promoting cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.

“The Secretary will then travel to New Delhi to participate in the 2 2 Ministerial Dialogue, joined by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III. The delegation will meet with Minister for External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh, and other senior Indian officials to discuss both bilateral and global concerns and developments in the Indo-Pacific,” read an official statement by the US State Department.

The spokesperson for the US State Department, Matthew Miller said, “Secretary of State Antony J Blinken will travel to Tel Aviv, Israel; Amman, Jordan; Ankara, Turkiye; Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, the Republic of Korea (ROK); and New Delhi, India November 2-10, 2023.”

The 2 2 Ministerial Dialogue is a diplomatic summit held every year since 2018, with the Minister of External Affairs and the Defence Minister representing India and the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defence representing the United States.

The discussions centre on common issues of concern between the two countries.

India and the US have been holding these dialogues for further strengthening their strategic ties and this would be the fifth edition of these parleys, the government sources had earlier told ANI.

The US side is also expected to push for military hardware cooperation while India is likely to ask for the sharing of high-end technology for developing indigenous weapon systems during the ministerial, according to sources.

India and the US recently agreed to a USD 3 billion deal for supplying 31 MQ-9B Predator drones to Indian defence forces.

The US is also pushing for the sale of six additional P-8I surveillance planes to India.

One of Pablo Picasso’s masterpieces, “Woman with a Watch,” was sold at auction Wednesday night for $139.3 million by Sotheby’s in New York, the second-highest price ever achieved for the artist.

The 1932 painting depicts one of the Spanish artist’s companions and muses, the French painter Marie-Therese Walter, and had been valued at over $120 million before going on the block, according to Sotheby’s.

The painting is part of Sotheby’s special sale this week of the collection of the wealthy New York patron of the arts Emily Fisher Landau, who died this year at the age of 102.

Julian Dawes, the house’s head of impressionist and modern art, called the Picasso canvas “a masterpiece by every measure.”

“Painted in 1932 — Picasso’s ‘annus mirabilis’ — it is full of joyful, passionate abandon yet at the same time it is utterly considered and resolved,” he said.

Walter was considered Picasso’s “golden muse”, and features in another of his works going under the hammer on Thursday at Christie’s: “Femme endormie,” or “Sleeping Woman”, estimated to sell for $25-$35 million.

Walter met Picasso in Paris in 1927, when the Spaniard was still married to Russian-Ukrainian ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova, and when Walter was 17.

She also featured in “Femme assise pres d’une fenetre (Marie-Therese)”, which was sold in 2021 for $103.4 million by Christie’s auction house.

In 2021, Sotheby’s also sold another Picasso featuring Walter, for $103 million. The couple had a daughter together who died last year.

Fifty years after his death in 1973 aged 91, Picasso remains one of the most influential artists of the modern world, and is often hailed as a dynamic and creative genius.

But in the wake of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault, his reputation has been tarnished by accusations that he exerted a violent hold over the women who shared his life and inspired his art.

Sotheby’s is hoping to net around $400 million in sales for pieces from Landau’s collection, which also includes works by Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol.