Andy Coghlan Exercising during pregnancy might have unanticipated benefits – at least in mice, a new study suggests. Pups born to active mums developed bigger brains a few weeks after birth. Tantalisingly, the growth was confined to a very specific part of the brain linked with intelligence. Compared with the offspring of inactive mothers (those denied an exercise wheel) pups born to active mothers typically developed 40% more cells in the hippocampus, the area of the brain vital for learning and memory. But the extra cells came after birth. The pups from exercising mums actually grew fewer hippocampus cells while in the womb, and had a lower body weight when born. But more than a month after birth, the pups from active mums had more than made up for it, putting on a spurt which gave them the extra 40% of hippocampal cells overall. The researchers were not able to tell whether the pups of active mums were more intelligent in this experiment because the mice were sacrificed in order to examine their brains. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Intelligence
Link ID: 8617 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Some cases of chronic fatigue syndrome could be due to brain "injuries" caused during the early stages of glandular fever, scientists suggest. A University of New South Wales team has followed people with Epstein-Barr virus since 1999. They suggest those who remained ill after the virus had gone had suffered a "hit-and-run injury" to the brain. Writing in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, they said the brain appears to keep behaving as if a person is ill. Epstein-Barr virus causes glandular fever, sometimes known as "the kissing disease". Symptoms include fever, sore throat, tiredness, and swollen lymph glands. Most patients recover within a few weeks but one in 10 young people will suffer prolonged symptoms, marked by fatigue. If these symptoms persist, to a disabling degree for six months or more, the illness may be diagnosed as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). The researchers followed the course of illness among 39 people diagnosed with acute glandular fever. Eight patients developed a "post-infective fatigue syndrome" lasting six months or longer, while the remaining 31 recovered quickly. The scientists then looked for signs of the Epstein-Barr virus in blood samples collected from each individual over 12 months. Professor Andrew Lloyd, of the research team, said: "Our findings reveal that neither the virus nor an abnormal immune response explain the post-infective fatigue syndrome. (C)BBC

Keyword: Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 8616 - Posted: 03.06.2006

by Brendan O'Neill I've been on a lot of demos in my time, but none quite like Saturday's march in Oxford from Broad Street to South Parks Road to defend the building of a biomedical research laboratory at Oxford University where experiments will be conducted on animals. Animal rights activists have demonstrated against the lab almost every week for the past 18 months; the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a ragbag of self-deluded 'freedom fighters' for animals, even described all academics, students and other workers at Oxford as 'legitimate targets' in its 'war' on the laboratory. On Saturday, the fightback started: around 700 people, a mix of scientists, academics, Home County wives and a generous sprinkling of bright and angry students, marched on the lab shouting such memorable slogans as 'What do we want? The Oxford lab! When do we want it? Now!', and 'Animal research cures disease, Human beings over chimpanzees!' (that one made some of the Home County types a little uncomfortable). The pro-testing protest easily overshadowed the anti-testing protest (which was taking place, as usual, opposite the lab), both on the day itself and in the miles of media coverage that followed. Pro-Test, the group behind the pro-lab demo, is the brainchild of a 16-year-old school dropout from Swindon. He got the idea for it in late January, when he and two friends visited Oxford and decided to scribble the words 'Support progress: build the Oxford lab' on a makeshift placard and parade around the city centre. © spiked 2000-2006

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 8615 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Review by WILLIAM SALETAN JUDITH RICH HARRIS calls "No Two Alike" a "scientific detective story." The mystery is why people — even identical twins who grow up in the same home with the same genes — end up with different personalities. The detective is Harris herself, a crotchety amateur, housebound because of an illness, who takes on the academic establishment armed only with a sharp mind and an Internet connection. Harris the author scrupulously follows clues; Harris the protagonist drives the story forward through force of character, arriving at a theory of personality that could be said to describe herself. Eight years ago, Harris's book "The Nurture Assumption" set academic psychology on fire by attacking the notion that parenting styles shape children. Scholars, irked by this upstart former textbook writer and grad-school reject, scorned her argument. In her new book, Harris tries to embarrass her critics while synthesizing her work into a theory of personality. "No Two Alike" is two books: a display of human weakness, and a display of scientific courage and imagination. Every detective has a favorite method. Harris's is behavioral genetics, which attempts to tease out the genetic bases of behavior. To sort genetic from environmental factors, you study people with the same genes but different environments: identical twins raised apart. Or you study people with different genes but the same environment: adoptive siblings raised together. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 8614 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A new study, led by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center, pinpoints the role that two genes – Factor H and Factor B – play in the development of nearly three out of four cases of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a devastating eye disease that affects more than 10 million people in the United States. Findings indicate that 74 percent of AMD patients carry certain variants in one or both genes that significantly increase their risk of this disease. Published in Nature Genetics, the research is a continuation of work published last year by the same team in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS, April 30, 2005 issue, see Columbia press release: http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/news/press_releases/AMD-Allikmets.html). Led by Rando Allikmets, Ph.D., the Acquavella Associate Professor in Ophthalmology, Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University Medical Center. The PNAS study showed that several variants in the Factor H gene significantly increase the risk of developing AMD. Factor H encodes a protein that helps shut down an immune response against bacterial or viral infection, once the infection is eliminated. People with these inherited risk-increasing variations of Factor H are less able to control inflammation caused by infectious triggers, which may spark AMD later in life. Though the effect of Factor H on AMD is large, variation in this gene alone does not fully explain who gets AMD and who doesn't. As described in the PNAS paper, about one-third (29 percent) of people with a Factor H risk variant had not been diagnosed with AMD.

Keyword: Vision; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8613 - Posted: 06.24.2010

AUSTIN, Texas—Having a set of extra genes gave fish on separate continents the ability to evolve electric organs, report researchers from The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Harold Zakon and colleagues, in a paper recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that African and South American groups of fish independently evolved electric organs by modifying sodium channel proteins typically used in muscle contraction. Mutations in sodium channel proteins can cause serious muscular disorders, epilepsy and heart problems in humans and other vertebrates. But fish have two copies of many of their genes, and Zakon found that the duplicate sodium channel gene could mutate and evolve without harming the fish. “The spare gene gave [the electric fish] a little bit of evolutionary leeway,” says Zakon, professor of neurobiology. “This is really one of the first cases that the ancestral gene duplication in fish has actually been linked to a gene that has been freed up and evolving in accordance with a ‘new lifestyle.’” Zakon and colleagues looked at two sodium channel genes in the electric organs and muscles in electric and non-electric fish. Electric fish use their electric organs, which are modified muscles, to communicate with each other and sense their environment.

Keyword: Evolution; Animal Communication
Link ID: 8612 - Posted: 06.24.2010

DURHAM, N.C. -- Distinct regions of the human brain are activated when people are faced with ambiguous choices versus choices involving only risk, Duke University Medical Center researchers have discovered. The investigators found that they could predict activation of different brain areas, based on how averse study participants were toward either risk or ambiguity. The finding confirms what economists have long debated -- that different attitudes toward perceived risk and ambiguity in decision-making situations may reflect a basic distinction in brain function, the researchers said. Such fundamental knowledge of neural functioning will contribute to an understanding of why people make risky choices, and how such risk-taking can become pathological, as in addiction or compulsive gambling, they added. Their study appears in the March 2, 2006 issue of Neuron. The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Duke. "We were able to see individual differences in brain activation depending on the person's preferences or aversions to risk and ambiguity," said Scott Huettel, Ph.D., lead author and a neuroscientist with the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center at Duke University. "People who preferred ambiguity had increased activation in the prefrontal cortex, and people who preferred risk had increased activation in the parietal cortex. This opens up the possibility that there are specific neural mechanisms for different forms of economic decision making, which is a very exciting idea." © 2001-2006 Duke University Medical Center

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 8611 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Christen Brownlee At family dinner tables around the globe, prodding mothers have dished out the same refrain for decades: "Eat your fish," they say. "It's brain food!" For children picking at crusty fish sticks or blobs of pink poached salmon, the statement raises suspicions. But the message is turning out to be more than just an attempt to get children to clean their plates. Recent research is suggesting that what you eat can influence the function of your brain. Scientists are providing hints that what you choose to consume or avoid in your daily diet can have consequences on the brain's resiliency in the face of injury or disease. Studies suggest that foods such as fish and a curry spice called curcumin, for example, can give the brain an added edge to stay healthy. On the other hand, a steady diet of high-fat and starchy foods, such as that double cheeseburger from a favorite fast-food joint, may eventually do the brain a serious disservice. On the extreme end of dieting, some research indicates that paring food intake to the bare minimum may protect the brain from a lifetime of everyday insults. Taken together, these results point in a direction that any kid could have seen coming: Once again, Mom was right. Copyright ©2006 Science Service.

Keyword: Obesity; Intelligence
Link ID: 8609 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Nathan Seppa An experimental drug for multiple sclerosis (MS) that was approved in 2004, then abruptly yanked off shelves last year because of safety concerns, may get a second chance. Two studies show that the drug can curb MS symptoms and slow progression of the autoimmune disease over 2 years, the longest tests of this drug to date. A third investigation finds no further cases of the often-fatal complication that sidetracked the drug last year, beyond the three patients who fell ill at that time. All three papers appear in the March 2 New England Journal of Medicine. The drug, natalizumab, was pulled 4 months after its approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Three patients in clinical trials had developed progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare nervous system disorder caused by a virus that attacks people with suppressed immunity. The withdrawal came after doctors had written roughly 7,000 prescriptions for natalizumab for MS, rheumatoid arthritis, and an intestinal ailment called Crohn's disease. The drug was marketed as Tysabri by Biogen Idec of Cambridge, Mass., and Elan Corp. of Dublin, which both funded the new studies testing the drug's effectiveness. Copyright ©2006 Science Service.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 8608 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JONATHAN SILVERSTEIN -- Back in the ice age, Northern European cavemen got all the chicks. Thanks to a food shortage and a man shortage about 10,000 years ago, men were in such demand they had their pick of mates. With so much competition among women to find a mate, nature and evolution kicked in to give some cave women a distinctive look to attract the opposite sex: blond hair and blue eyes. So says a new study published in the British science journal Evolution and Human Behavior. The study's author, Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost, concludes that although blond hair and blue eyes started as a genetic mutation, men were pulled in by the golden locks and baby blues, thus populating the area with blond and blue-eyed children. While the rest of the world has predominantly brown hair and brown eyes, Northern Europeans have the greatest variety of hair and eye color found anywhere, and Frost believes it resulted from the sexual appeal of these traits. "When an individual is faced with potential mates of equal value, it will tend to select the one that 'stands out from the crowd,' the study said. © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

Keyword: Evolution; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8607 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Enormous bee swarms containing as many as 15,000 bees are guided by "streaker" scout bees that fly super fast and lead the swarm to its destination, according to a new study published in the latest journal Animal Behavior. The study negates a prior theory that scout bees released smelly chemicals that informed the other bees where to go. The discovery of streaking scout bees indicates the other bees simply look up to the speedy flyers that zip along with a "Follow me!" visual cue. "A bee's eye is rather large and is not placed at the front of the bee's 'face' like ours, but is sort of positioned on top of the bee's head," explained Madeleine Beekman, lead author of the study. "This means that the bee has a clear view of what is happening above her." Beekman, a bee expert and researcher in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sydney, added, "Hence, when scouts fly fast above a bee that doesn't know where to go, this fast-flying bee will be visible as a streak and this streak points into the direction of travel." She told Discovery News that the streaks are even visible to humans; she has seen them by walking into bee swarms. The fastest streakers fly at a rate of around 3.3 feet per second. © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Animal Communication
Link ID: 8606 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Roxanne Khamsi A multiple sclerosis drug, voluntarily withdrawn from sale by its manufacturers following complications in patients, has shown substantial benefits in slowing the progression of the disease in a new study. Natalizumab (branded Tysabri), made by Biogen Idec and Elan Pharmaceuticals, reduced the risk of sustained progression of disability from MS by 42% in a study of about 1000 patients. Results from the two-year trial which began in 2001 and received supported by Biogen, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday. Natalizumab also decreased the frequency of clinical relapses, which could involve a dramatic reduction in sight or muscle function due to MS, by 68%. By comparison, current MS drugs on the market reduce these relapses by about one-third, comments Allan Ropper, at the Caritas-St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston, US, also an associate editor at NEJM. However, another study published alongside these results, following more than 3000 participants has estimated that patients treated with natalizumab have a one in 1000 chance of developing a potentially fatal disease of the central nervous system called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). PML, symptoms of which include mental deterioration and problems with speech, can be caused by a latent virus present in the kidneys of over 60% of people. The virus remains latent in healthy humans, but suppression of the immune system can allow it to become active and cause damage. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 8605 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Michael Hopkin Chimpanzees may be more eager to help than we thought. Research suggests that the apes can understand when a person is in need, and are unexpectedly willing to give aid. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have shown that young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) will pick up a marker pen and hand it back after their keeper has 'accidentally' dropped it. The study shows that chimpanzees understand when another is in need, and can help out if they are in a position to do so, according to Felix Warneken and Michael Tomasello, who publish the research in Science1. The results are surprising because chimpanzees, although intelligent, are not regarded as being very cooperative unless they get a clear benefit. Last year, anthropologist Joan Silk of the University of California, Los Angeles, found that chimpanzees showed no preference for getting food for the group over eating solo, even when it cost them nothing (see "Chimps fall short on friendship"). So are chimps helpful or not? It is unclear, says Silk. She points out that her experiment looked at interactions between chimps, whereas the new study looked at chimps and humans. Things are further complicated by the fact that the new experiment involved interactions between young chimps, aged between three and five years, and their caregivers, who are more like parental figures. ©2006 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Evolution; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 8604 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists say they have identified a section of the brain which, when damaged by stress hormones, can cause the onset of dementia. High levels of stress hormone have been found to shrink the anterior cingulate cortex at the centre of the brain. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh say brain scans showing a shrunken cingulate indicates you could develop Alzheimer's in the future. It is the first time the link has been found in human brains. The study's author, Dr Alasdair MacLullich said he was "very excited" by the £130,000 study's findings. "If this part of the brain is smaller then you are likely to have higher levels of stress hormone and are at higher risk of developing dementia and depression," he said. "This could be a marker, an indicator that your brain might go wrong in the future." A team of six researchers looked at stress hormone levels in 20 healthy male volunteers aged between 65 and 70 for the study. It found that people with a smaller anterior cingulate cortex had higher levels of stress hormones. Doctors have known for years that certain diseases common in ageing like Alzheimer's disease and depression can be associated with shrinkage of the brain. (C)BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 8603 - Posted: 03.01.2006

by David Cohn • Some habits are hard to break. Others become addictions. The latter group could be a figment of the past thanks to a new universal addiction-blocking substance developed by an international research effort led by the University of Saskatchewan. The team created a peptide, a short chain of amino acids, from PTEN, a natural enzyme that acts on the ventral tegmental area, the reward center of the brain, where most drugs take effect. The peptide blocks the natural rewards that an addict experiences from an increase in serotonin—a neurotransmitter associated with learning, sleep and mood—when taking his or her substance of choice. The regulation of serotonin then modulates the levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter active in the brain’s pleasure system. "Our peptide decreases the activity of dopamine neurons located in the brain region responsible for rewards," said Xia Zhang, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan. The study published in the March issue of Nature Medicine found that rats given large doses of both nicotine and THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, for eight days straight would show no signs of addiction or withdrawal when treated with the peptide after their course of the illicit substance ran out. © Copyright 2006 Seed Media Group, LLC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8602 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Notebook by Mick Hume TO BE HONEST, I never expected to find myself in bed with Esther Rantzen. I now discover, however, that she is a patron of Patients’ Voice for Medical Advance (until recently known as Seriously Ill for Medical Research), a fine organisation that defends animal experimentation. Which puts us on the same side on one of the most divisive issues of the day. “Whose side are you on?” is a famous slogan of the old Left-Right divide, which you don’t often hear in our age of soulless managerial politics when, as the Monty Python song predicted, accountancy really does seem to make the world go around. But there are different divisions that matter today, drawing new lines in the political and cultural sands. One such divide is embodied by two protests around animal research due to take place in Oxford tomorrow. On one side will be the usual anti-vivisection demonstration against the building of Oxford University’s biomedical research laboratory. On the other side will be a demonstration in support of the lab and animal research. It has been called by a group called Pro-Test, set up by a 16-year-old from Swindon and now run by Oxford students, that stands for “science, reasoned debate, and above all, the welfare of mankind” (www.pro-test.org.uk). Neither of these is likely to be a mass demo. But the clash does symbolise something bigger, and to declare which side you are on is to make a statement about the sort of world in which you want to live. Copyright 2006 Times Newspapers Ltd.

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 8601 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Katherine Unger WASHINGTON, D.C.--Teetotalers, rejoice. Toasting with grape juice may carry brain-sparing benefits, according to research presented here 24 February at the World Parkinson's Congress. In a series of cognitive and motor tests, grape juice-drinking rats outshined their placebo-swilling counterparts, possibly due to an enhanced release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain. As many oenophiles are well aware, studies have found that drinking wine lowers the risk of heart disease, possibly by reducing blood pressure or countering the effects of "bad" (LDL) cholesterol. Similar effects have been shown for the dark purple Concord grape juice, which contains polyphenols, a class of antioxidants found in wines. But neuroscientist James Joseph of Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues wanted to see if the compounds in grape juice might also serve to protect or preserve the brain--specifically, the elderly brain. So Joseph's group focused on 19 month- old rats--pretty ancient considering most rats live less than two years. The researchers fed the rodents a diet consisting exclusively of either grape juice (10% or 50%, diluted with water) or a calorie- and flavor-matched placebo. After six weeks, the team tested the rats for motor skills such as balance, stamina, and strength. Rats on the 50% juice diet outperformed those on either the 10% juice diet or the placebo diet; they were able to hang onto a wire for an average 2 seconds longer than the others, for example. © 2006 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 8600 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers have identified the neural activity that occurs when the brain “sets the stage” for retaining a memory – a finding that could have important implications for memory research and help determine ways in which people can strengthen memories they want to retain while weakening ones they would rather forget. The results of the study appear as an advance online publication in the journal Nature Neuroscience. In two separate experiments with adults, UCI neuroscientist Michael Rugg, in collaboration with colleagues from University College London, looked at neural activity that preceded the presentation of single words. They found that measures of the activity could predict whether the words would be remembered in a later memory test. In the experiments, Rugg and his colleagues presented a group of young adults with a different word every four or five seconds, requiring them to make a judgment about a specific characteristic of the word, such as whether it referred to a living or a non-living thing. A moment before each word was presented, participants were “cued” with a visual signal that alerted them of the upcoming word. Neural activity caused by the cue was monitored through electroencephalograpy, or EEG, a method by which electrodes attached to the scalp measure underlying brain activity. Later, participants were shown the words again, along with words they had not previously been shown, and were asked to identify which ones had been presented in the first part of the experiment. © Copyright 2002-2006 UC Regents

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 8599 - Posted: 06.24.2010

In addition to triggering a depression withdrawal syndrome, repeated defeat by dominant animals leaves a mouse with an enduring molecular scar in its brain that could help to explain why depression is so difficult to cure, suggest researchers funded by National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). In mice exposed to this animal model of depression, silencer molecules turned off a gene for a key protein in the brain’s hippocampus. By activating a compensatory mechanism, an antidepressant temporarily restored the animals’ sociability and the protein’s expression, but it failed to remove the silencers. A true cure for depression would likely have to target this persistent stress-induced scar, say the researchers, led by Eric Nestler, M.D., The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who report on their findings online in Nature Neuroscience during the week of February 26, 2005. “Our study provides insight into how chronic stress triggers changes in the brain that are much more long-lived than the effects of existing antidepressants,” explained Nestler. In the study, mice exposed to aggression by a different dominant mouse daily for 10 days became socially defeated; they vigorously avoided other mice, even weeks later. Expression of a representative gene in the hippocampus, a memory hub implicated in depression, plummeted three-fold and remained suppressed for weeks.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 8598 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has found that a delayed-release stimulant used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be less likely to be abused than other stimulant drugs. Study participants taking therapeutic oral doses of Concerta, a once-daily form of the drug methylphenidate, did not report perceiving and enjoying the drug's subjective effects, features that are associated with a medication's potential for abuse. The report appears in the March 2006 issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry. "We know that drugs that cause euphoria are potentially abusable, and euphoria requires rapid delivery to the brain. Using sophisticated PET scan imaging, we were able to examine the rate of delivery of both rapid- and delayed-release formulations of methylphenidate and correlate those results with how the drugs felt to study volunteers," says Thomas Spencer, MD, of the MGH Pediatric Psychopharmacology Unit, the paper's lead author. "The ability to show that rate of brain delivery may determine abuse potential is important to our understanding of the safety of different formulations." Methylphenidate and other stimulant drugs used to treat ADHD act by blocking the dopamine transporter, a molecule on brain cells that takes up the neurotransmitter dopamine, raising its level in the brain. Studies have shown that the brains of ADHD patients have abnormal regulation of dopamine, which plays a key role in the control of movement, behavior and attention. While stimulants are effective for controlling ADHD symptoms, the drugs are also subject to abuse, so the current study was designed to compare the abuse potential of two formulations of methylphenidate.

Keyword: ADHD; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8597 - Posted: 03.01.2006