A new McGill University study that used thermal imaging technology for the first time ever to measure sexual arousal rates has turned the conventional wisdom that women become aroused more slowly than men on its head. "Comparing sexual arousal between men and women, we see that there is no difference in the amount of time it takes healthy young men and women to reach peak arousal," said Dr. Irv Binik, psychology professor and founder and director of the Sex and Couple Therapy Service of Royal Victoria Hospital, which is part of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). Thermal imaging, or thermography, is infrared imaging using thermographic cameras that detect radiation emitted by objects based on their temperature. Because of its usefulness in detecting warm objects in the dark, most people know it as the technology used in night vision goggles for military operations. Previously, sex researchers have measured arousal with instruments that require genital contact and manipulation. Binik focused thermographic cameras on his subjects' genitals while they watched a montage of material from pornography to horror movies to The Best of Mr. Bean to Canadian tourism travelogues to provide a base of control data. During the arousal experiment, the male and female subjects watched separate sexually explicit films procured from the Kinsey Institute and determined to be sexually arousing to specific genders. They watched the images through special video goggles to minimize distractions. © 2006 McGill University

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 9407 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is linked to low birth weights, according to a Norwegian study. Scientists have discovered that people born weighing less than 2.5kg (5.5lb) were at a greater risk of developing IBS than heavier babies. They believe this may be related to development of the digestive system. The study, published in the journal Gut, looked at 3,334 pairs of female and male identical and non-identical twins born between 1967 and 1979. They compared the recorded birth weight of the volunteers with whether they had gone on to suffer from IBS. Roughly one in 20 had suffered from IBS, a common and painful condition that has a wide range of symptoms, including regular abdominal pain, diarrhoea and constipation. Women were more likely to have IBS than men. The researchers found that those born weighing less than 2.5kg were more likely to have had IBS - although they were unable to quantify the exact size of the effect. For those born weighing less than 1.5kg, the difference was more marked: they were 2.5 times more likely to have had IBS when compared with those weighing above 2.5kg. Lead researcher Dr May-Bente Bengston, of the University of Oslo, said this was a "significantly higher risk". They also found that the twins with the low birth weight were more likely to develop IBS about eight years earlier than those weighing over 1.5kg. (C)BBC

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 9406 - Posted: 09.28.2006

By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D. What’s not to like about understanding and empathy? They’re comforting and reassuring. And they’re two things that make patients stick with their treatment, as any psychotherapist worth his or her salt can tell you. There is one little problem with psychotherapy when it relies on empathy and understanding alone, though: They often aren’t enough to get patients to change, let alone grow. Recently, I saw a 48-year-old professional single man in consultation who had been in therapy twice a week for six years. After telling me about his chronic depression, he went on to describe his life. “I had a miserable childhood,” he complained. “My father was an alcoholic who shouted all the time. My mother was a nonpresence and my brother checked out on drugs.” Then I asked him about what he did during his days. He was unemployed and supported in part by the neglectful parents whom he railed against. As is typical of narcissistic patients, he viewed his environment as having failed him and felt that he had not gotten the recognition in life that he deserved. “What do you hope to accomplish in therapy?” I asked him. “I just want to feel better and get rid of this depression.” “Tell me, how do you feel about your current therapist?” “Oh, she’s terrific. Warm, understanding and always available. But I don’t feel like I’m any better.” Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 9405 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS When the neuroscientist Paul Greengard was named one of three winners of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, he decided to use his award — almost $400,000 — to finance something new: the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize. “I hoped to bring more attention to the work of brilliant women scientists,” Dr. Greengard recently explained at his laboratory at Rockefeller University in New York. “Perhaps this will bring them further recognition and even a Nobel.” Dr. Greengard’s Nobel Prize, which was shared with Eric R. Kandel of Columbia University and Arvid Carlsson of Gothenberg University in Sweden, recognized his discoveries of how nerve cells communicate with one other. This year’s Nobel winners will be announced next week. Q. Why create the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize? A. There were two factors. One was the observation that there was still discrimination against women in science, even at the highest levels. On a personal level, I wanted to create something in honor of my mother, Pearl Meister, who died giving birth to me. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 9404 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The term "blindsight" may sound like an oxymoron, but it's actually a bizarre effect in which people who have lost some of their vision from brain damage are still able to react to stimuli hidden in their blind spots. Researchers report that repeatedly stimulating the blind spots of partially blind people for several months can improve their ability to use blindsight in laboratory tests, suggesting that larger trials of the technique are warranted. Stroke, trauma or surgery can cause so-called cortical blindness by knocking out a portion of the visual cortex, the part of the brain that receives input from the eyes. Blindsight is thought to occur because the brain is capable of rerouting the visual information that the eyes are still receiving. Examples of the effect include being able to guess the color, motion and even emotional expression of visual stimuli placed in the blind spot at better than chance rates. Some groups have tried to identify improvements in blindsight after repeated stimulations, but such studies have generally involved introducing stimuli near the edges of the blind spot, which leaves open the possibility that subjects could have skewed the data by shifting their gaze. Hoping to eliminate this source of uncertainty, vision researcher Arash Sahraie of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and his colleagues asked 12 cortically blind people to practice their blindsight for stimuli smack in the middle of their blind spots. Daily for three months, participants using home computers repeatedly guessed which of two stimuli was presented to them first--either a flickering circular field of black and white lines, designed to maximally stimulate their cortices, or a gray dot. © 1996-2006 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 9403 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Stephanie Bird Imagine two scenarios. In the first, you are driving down the street and are suddenly overcome by a fit of sneezing. You veer off to the right, and by the time you come to a stop, you realize, to your horror, that you have hit a young woman walking on the sidewalk. She is pinned against a brick wall and, despite emergency treatment, will be paralyzed below the waist for life. In the second scenario, you are driving a pickup truck on a fine summer morning when you suddenly notice a bee buzzing around inside. You are frightened because you think you might be allergic to bee stings, and while trying to kill the bee with a handy newspaper, you swerve into oncoming traffic, hitting a small car head-on. The driver, a young father of two, is killed. Are you morally responsible in either of these cases (both of which actually occurred), and should you be held legally responsible? In each case, you can honestly say you didn’t mean to cause harm, and it makes a difference that there was neither conscious nor unconscious intent. Still, could you have foreseen the potential consequences of your distraction? We expect people to exercise self-control. We all know that it is difficult but not impossible to stifle a sneeze; you might do so in a classroom, for instance. We could argue that we have even more control over how we respond to our fears than we do to our impulses. Shouldn’t we be expected, then, to not allow ourselves to be distracted by fear of a bee sting when engaged in something as risky as driving? © 2002 Science & Spirit Magazine.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 9402 - Posted: 06.24.2010

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- A man's stereotypical self-image as the "strong, silent type" and the stigma of depression are major reasons why older men are less likely than women to be referred to studies of depression, to seek treatment for depression, and to recognize and express symptoms of depression, according to clinicians and recruiters interviewed for a new study from the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. The study provides some of the strongest evidence to date that depressed older men are less likely than women to receive treatment for their depression, underscoring the importance of these barriers. Among some older men, the study found, traditional views of masculinity and the stigma associated with mental illness lead to a tendency to reject a diagnosis of depression, and to conceal or mask symptoms of the condition. Authored by UC Davis associate professor of psychiatry professor Ladson Hinton, the study appears in the October 2006 edition of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. The study contributes further evidence to gender disparities in depression care documented in previous studies, and identifies reasons for these disparities. The findings are important in the arena of public health because of depression's association with suicide in older adults. Older men have higher rates of completed suicide: 31.8 per 100,000 in men age 65 and older, compared with 4.1 per 100,000 in older women. The reasons for gender disparities in depression care among older adults are poorly understood.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 9401 - Posted: 09.28.2006

John Pickrell The queens of bees, ants and wasps that indulge in the most promiscuous and lengthy sex marathons produce the healthiest colonies, a new study reveals. Honeybee queens that mated with multiple drones were shown to foster bee hives with wider genetic variation. This variation meant they were much better able to fend off a debilitating disease, researchers found. For many social insect queens, mating is a costly activity. In honeybees, for example, it involves her flying many kilometres from the hive to rendezvous sites with male drones – the longer she stays to mate, the more precious energy she expends, and the greater the chance there is that she will be devoured by predators. This has made experts wonder why the queens of some species of social insects indulge in multiple sexual encounters, while others make do with a single male. Ideas include that the resulting genetic variation could help improve the division of labour in a colony, or that multiple mating might simply be a strategy to collect more sperm. But perhaps the most convincing theory is that queens that take many lovers produce colonies that are better protected against disease. "Insects living very closely in nutrient-rich environments are hotbeds for micro-organisms – they need mechanisms to protect against disease," says apiculturalist (bee expert) David Tarpy at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, US. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 9400 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Patricia McAdams Fetuses of mothers who show high rates of depression, anxiety and stress weigh less and are smaller than average at midterm, according to a recent study from the University of Miami School of Medicine. Psychobiologist Miguel Diego and colleagues found that the stress hormone cortisol seems to be one potential mechanism for transmitting a mother's stress to her unborn baby. "Maternal distress is accompanied by biochemical changes, such as increased cortisol, that can both directly and indirectly affect the fetus," Diego said. "Cortisol can directly cross through the placenta into the fetus, which could affect fetal development." The study, published in the September-October issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, may shed light on previous findings that women with prenatal depression, anxiety or stress are more likely to deliver premature and low-birth-weight babies. Cortisol "can also affect the mother's vascular function, thereby reducing blood flow to the fetus, which could affect fetal growth by diminishing the amount of oxygen and nutrients that are delivered," Diego said. © 2006 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Stress; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 9399 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JANE E. BRODY Conversations with my elderly aunt alternate between being comical and frustrating. I might say to her, “My grandsons are now swimming like fish,” and she will reply, “My friend’s dog died yesterday.” If I should ask, “What is your granddaughter doing this summer?” she is likely to reply with something like, “I went shopping in Brooklyn yesterday.” Though her mind remains razor sharp and she maintains an independent life in her late 80’s, her hearing is so poor that most people soon give up trying to engage her in conversation, unless they happen to enjoy such non sequiturs. But though family members have been urging her for years to get a hearing aid, she has refused, saying, “They’re too much trouble,” or that a friend had one and didn’t like it (although this friend wears hers every day). My aunt is one of 31.5 million Americans who suffer from hearing loss. They include a third of Americans over 60 and up to half of those over 75, most of whom have age-related hearing loss, a condition known medically as presbycusis. Hearing loss is the third most common chronic condition among older Americans, after hypertension and arthritis. Hearing difficulties in older people can have serious consequences, including social isolation, functional decline and depression. Hearing loss can also impair memory and cognitive function, according to a study by neuroscientists at Brandeis University. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 9398 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Jacquie van Santen Genes influence how you learn to read and spell (Image: iStockphoto) The genes involved in learning to sound out words are different from the ones involved in learning to recognise words by sight, according to an Australian study. The finding, published online in the journal Reading and Writing, adds fuel to the debate about the best way of teaching children to read. There are two particular skills that children need to learn if they are going to be good readers. The first is the sounding out process, known as phonics. The other skill is being able to recognise familiar words pretty much by sight. This helps when they read words such as 'yacht' that don't follow the phonics rule. Researchers including Associate Professor Anne Castles, from the University of Melbourne, tested different genetic models for reading and spelling in 691 sets of identical and non-identical twins to determine to what extent these skills are genetically based. Twins are ideal for this type of research because identical twins are more similar genetically than non-identical twins. ©2006 ABC

Keyword: Language; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 9397 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ERIKA KINETZ Hysteria is a 4,000-year-old diagnosis that has been applied to no mean parade of witches, saints and, of course, Anna O. But over the last 50 years, the word has been spoken less and less. The disappearance of hysteria has been heralded at least since the 1960’s. What had been a Victorian catch-all splintered into many different diagnoses. Hysteria seemed to be a vanished 19th-century extravagance useful for literary analysis but surely out of place in the serious reaches of contemporary science. The word itself seems murky, more than a little misogynistic and all too indebted to the theorizing of the now-unfashionable Freud. More than one doctor has called it “the diagnosis that dare not speak its name.” Nor has brain science paid the diagnosis much attention. For much of the 20th century, the search for a neurological basis for hysteria was ignored. The growth of the ability to capture images of the brain in action has begun to change that situation. Functional neuroimaging technologies like single photon emission computerized tomography, or SPECT, and positron emission tomography, or PET, now enable scientists to monitor changes in brain activity. And although the brain mechanisms behind hysterical illness are still not fully understood, new studies have started to bring the mind back into the body, by identifying the physical evidence of one of the most elusive, controversial and enduring illnesses. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 9396 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NICHOLAS WADE Scientists have gained a new window for peering into the brain, courtesy of a $41 million project financed by Paul G. Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. The Allen Brain AtlasThe project is an electronic atlas that shows which genes are switched on in neurons throughout the brain of a mouse. Instead of looking at one gene at a time in one or a few neurons, researchers can now study all the brain genes systematically. And instead of having to visualize each gene experimentally, everything is available online. “I am using it all the time,” said Catherine Dulac, who studies mouse behavior at Harvard. “It’s an extraordinary resource.” Marc Tessier-Lavigne, an expert on neuronal signaling and vice president for research at Genentech, said he would put the new brain atlas “on a par with the human genome project.” Both are members of the scientific advisory board overseeing the project. Thomas M. Jessel, a neuroscientist at Columbia University, said after looking at the atlas that it was of high quality and would complement other available brain maps. “It is likely to be the standard source for the next few years” for people interested in the pattern of gene activation in the brain,” Professor Jessel said. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 9395 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Michael Conlon CHICAGO (Reuters) - Smokers of menthol cigarettes find it harder to quit than those smoking regular cigarettes, researchers said on Monday, perhaps explaining why blacks in the United States suffer disproportionately from smoking-related ailments. For a variety of historical and cultural reasons, including targeted advertising, about 70 percent of black smokers smoke menthol cigarettes such as Kool or Newport compared to about 30 percent of white smokers, said the study, which was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. This, combined with the difficulty in kicking the menthol cigarette habit, could help researchers figure out why blacks in the United States have higher rates of cancer, heart disease and other smoking-related illnesses even though they generally smoke less, the study said. The study, which looked at the smoking habits of 1,535 people over 15 years, did not determine why menthol cigarettes were harder to kick than regular tobacco cigarettes, said Dr. Mark Pletcher of the University of California, San Francisco, the lead author of the study. "Beyond the obvious, that they're sort of more pleasant to smoke, there is some evidence that it (menthol) inhibits the metabolization of nicotine, the addictive component," he said in an interview. © 1996-2006 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 9394 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Max Planck scientists have decoded the molecular details of a genetic defect that disrupts signal transmission in the brain and causes autism Using an animal model, brain researchers in Göttingen have examined the effects of mutations that cause autism in humans. These are mutations in the genes which carry the building instructions for proteins in the neuroligin family. The study published in the scientific journal Neuron (September 21, 2006) shows that neuroligins ensure that signal transmission between nerve cells functions. In the brain of genetically altered mice without neuroligins, the contact points at which the nerve cells communicate, the synapses, do not mature. The researchers assume that similar malfunctions are experienced by autistic patients. Autism is one of the most common psychiatric illnesses. Around 0.5 percent of all young children have a syndrome belonging to the "autistic spectrum". The main symptoms of this developmental malfunction are delayed language development or no language development at all, disturbed social behaviour and repetitive behaviour patterns. In many patients, the disease is accompanied by mental disability. Autistic individuals exhibiting high intelligence or outstanding skills in a particular area, called "savants", such as the main character in the film "Rain Man", are rare. Even up to the middle of the last century, exceptionally cold emotional behaviour on the part of the mother was given as the cause for autism. However, the "refrigerator mom" theory has now been refuted.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 9393 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New Haven, Conn.--A Yale School of Medicine study shows for the first time that a high level of testosterone, such as that caused by the use of steroids to increase muscle mass or for replacement therapy, can lead to a catastrophic loss of brain cells. Taking large doses of androgens, or steroids, is known to cause hyperexcitability, a highly aggressive nature, and suicidal tendencies. These behavioral changes could be evidence of alterations in neuronal function caused by the steroids, said the senior author, Barbara Ehrlich, professor of pharmacology and physiology. "Next time a muscle-bound guy in a sports car cuts you off on the highway, don't get mad, just take a deep breath and realize that it might not be his fault," said Ehrlich. Testosterone is the main male hormone and it plays fundamental roles in development, differentiation, and cellular growth. In neurons, testosterone acts as a neurosteroid and can induce changes at the cellular level, which in turn lead to changes in behavior, mood and memory. Both neuroprotective and neurodegenerative effects of androgens have been reported. The researchers showed that high levels of testosterone triggered programmed cell death in nerve cells in culture. Cell death, or apoptosis, is critical in many life processes, including development and disease. It is characterized by membrane instability, activation of caspases, which are the executioner proteins in apoptosis, change in membrane potential, and DNA fragmentation.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 9392 - Posted: 09.27.2006

— A map of the mouse brain down to details of individual cells has been completed, the first project of an institute funded by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul G. Allen, it was announced Tuesday. The new Allen Brain Atlas is being made available online without cost to neuroscientists studying brain circuits and chemistry, a potential boon to cancer and other disease research because of similarities between the brains of mice and human beings, according to a statement issued by the Allen Institute of Brain Science. "We want people to use this and make discoveries," Dr. Allan Jones, the institute's chief scientific officer, told The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. A formal announcement was planned in Washington, D.C., with Allen and Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash, and Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. Because more than 90 percent of the same genes are found in mice and humans, the mouse brain map can be compared with genetic findings related to human neurological disorders. Moreover, the mapping project has shown that 80 percent of the body's genes are switched on in the brain, compared with 60 percent to 70 percent in previous scientific estimates, Jones said. © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 9391 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Katharine Sanderson If you always thought there was something the matter with your tone-deaf friends, research has now backed you up: they seem to be lacking some brain material. Scientists in Montreal, Canada, and Newcastle in the United Kingdom have identified the part of the brain that causes some people to sing like larks — and others to make you run for your earplugs as soon as they pick up the karaoke microphone. Krista Hyde at the Montreal Neurological Institute and her colleagues used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the brains of tone deaf, or amusic, people and compared the images with others from people with normal musical ability. The studies from both countries used identical methods and each set of results highlighted an area in the front of the brain — the right inferior frontal gyrus — which contains less white matter in amusic people than in the musically normal. White matter is responsible for information transmission in the brain, and the deficiency seen by Hyde probably hampers communication in the brain's right hemisphere, the researchers suggest, making music comprehension difficult. Musical 'behaviour' is often quantified by standard tests for six different abilities, including a sense of metre, the ability to remember a tune, and the ability to decipher changes in key, pitch, pitch direction and rhythm. © 2006 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 9390 - Posted: 06.24.2010

When people are made to think quickly, they report feeling happier as a result. They also say they are more energetic, more creative, more powerful, and more self-assured. In short, they reported a whole set of experiences associated with being "manic." Fast thinking, or "racing thoughts," is most commonly known as a symptom of the clinical psychiatric disorder of mania (and of the manic part of bipolar disorder or "manic-depression"). But, according to Princeton University psychologist Emily Pronin, most healthy people also have experienced racing thoughts at some point in time--perhaps when they are excited about a new idea they have just learned, or when they are brainstorming with a group of people, or even when they lie in bed unable to fall asleep. Pronin and her Harvard colleague Daniel Wegner decided to explore whether inducing people to think fast might lead them to feel some of the other experiences also associated with the manic experience. To examine this question, they experimentally manipulated the pace at which participants read a series of statements. Half of participants read the statements at a fast pace (about twice as fast as normal reading speed) and the other half read the statements at a slow pace (about twice as slow as normal reading speed). They then completed a questionnaire assessing their mood, energy level, self-esteem, etc., using standard psychological measures. As an added twist, some of the participants read statements that were very depressing in content (e.g., I want to go to sleep and never wake up) while others read statements that were very elating in content (e.g., Wow! I feel great!). The researchers found that regardless of the content of the statements, people felt happier, more energetic, more creative, more powerful, and more grandiose when they read the statements at a fast rather than a slow pace.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Emotions
Link ID: 9389 - Posted: 09.27.2006

John Pickrell Linguists are calling for an online public database, similar to the human genome project, that would allow researchers to collaboratively share different studies of language impairment. By gathering together studies of developmental disorders that cause communication impairments – such as autism or Down’s syndrome – they hope to provide new clues about the origins of language. Such a database might also help treat language disorders or help people learn foreign tongues, they say. Language is one of the defining characters of our species, but we know virtually nothing about where it came from. "We have a lot of theories, but we don’t have a lot of data," admits NYU's Gary Marcus. The biological basis of how people speak, listen and comprehend – and how all of this mental equipment evolved – is largely mysterious. With many psychological abilities, researchers can study animals to gain insights, but this is not possible with language as no animal communication systems are anywhere near as complex as ours. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 9388 - Posted: 06.24.2010