Two risk factors that place males at greater risk for heart disease than women appear to be influenced by genes on the X chromosome, report researchers at the NIH and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. The finding appears in a Research Letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In a separate Research Letter, the researchers at the NIH and at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia also report that women who lack functioning ovaries — either because of a hereditary condition or due to an illness — are more likely than are other women to experience shyness and anxiety in social situations. In the first report, researchers studied women with Turner syndrome, a hereditary condition in which women are missing all or part of one X chromosome, explained the senior author of both reports, Carolyn Bondy, Chief of the Developmental Endocrinology Branch at NIH’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The researchers tested whether the women had inherited their single normal X chromosome from their mothers or from their fathers. Women normally inherit one of their two X chromosomes from their mother and one from their father. Men normally inherit a single X chromosome from their mothers. The researchers also measured the women’s body fat distribution patterns and their cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Dr. Bondy explained that men have a greater tendency than do women to accumulate fat within their abdomens, while women tend to accumulate fat around their hips, buttocks, and thighs. Proportionally higher abdominal fat distribution is associated with cholesterol levels that increase the chances of cardiovascular disease.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Obesity
Link ID: 8685 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — A Scotsman with a heavy brogue may speak the same language as a Texas cowboy, but each has a distinct accent; now researchers have discovered that female whipbirds in Australia sing the same basic songs, but with regional accents. Female birds in general rarely sing, so that find itself is unusual. The determination is doubly noteworthy because the scientists observed that the males of this species, Psophodes olivaceus, sing with no accent whatsoever. "It is so intriguing to see both of these opposite patterns occurring within the same species," said lead researcher Daniel Mennill, a professor of behavioral ecology at the University of Windsor in Canada. "You wouldn't be shocked to visit one town and hear people speak with a twang, and then visit another town and hear a drawl ... .," he said. "But can you imagine if, in your travels, you found that females sounded different in each town, but males had the same brogue? These whipbirds demonstrate such a pattern." Mennill and his colleague Amy Rogers measured eastern whipbird recordings from 16 different populations along the east coast of Australia. For each of the 112 birds that they recorded, they measured the song's number of syllables, the length of the first syllable, the highest and lowest frequency of the last syllable, the time between these frequency extremes and other characteristics. © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 8684 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Children with personalities marked by aggressiveness, mood swings, a sense of alienation and a need for excitement may be at greater risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or conduct disorder, according to a new Florida State University study. FSU psychology professors Jeanette Taylor and Chris Schatschneider, FSU doctoral student Kelly Cukrowicz and University of Minnesota Professor William Iacono found that children with ADHD or conduct disorder had more negative emotions - aggressiveness, tension and feelings of being exploited, unlucky or poorly treated - and lower constraints - a tendency to break rules and engage in thrill-seeking behavior - than children with neither of the disorders. Not surprisingly, those children who have both ADHD and conduct disorder had the most extreme personality profiles. "This helps us to understand that personality is part of the bigger picture of these disorders," Taylor said. "That could help with initial assessments or lead to unexpected discoveries or potential interventions. We're saying to researchers and clinicians, 'Think about personality when you look at these issues.' " The study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, is the first to investigate personality trait patterns among children who have ADHD, conduct disorder or a combination of both. It is important to learn more about the co-occurrence of ADHD and conduct disorder because the consequences are so severe, Taylor said.

Keyword: ADHD; Aggression
Link ID: 8683 - Posted: 03.22.2006

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—It was once thought that only humans gestured to direct another person’s attention, but such “referential” gesturing was recently observed in wild chimpanzees. John Mitani, University of Michigan anthropology professor, and colleague Simone Pika, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at University of St. Andrews in Scotland, observed male chimps habitually using “directed scratches” to request grooming of specific areas on the body. The findings suggest that our closest living relatives may be capable of mental-state attribution, making inferences about the knowledge of others. Up until now, scientists saw directed scratching only in captive chimps and language-trained apes who interacted with humans, Mitani said. “The more we learn, the more we see chimpanzees employing remarkable, seemingly human-like behaviors,” Mitani said. “To me that is one of the lessons of this little paper.” The findings appear in today’s issue of Current Biology, in a paper entitled “Referential Gestural Communication in Wild Chimpanzees.” Copyright © 2005 The Regents of the University of Michigan

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 8682 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The songs of the humpback whale are among the most complex in the animal kingdom. Researchers have now mathematically confirmed that whales have their own syntax that uses sound units to build phrases that can be combined to form songs that last for hours. Until now, only humans have demonstrated the ability to use such a hierarchical structure of communication. The research, published online in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, offers a new approach to studying animal communication, although the authors do not claim that humpback whale songs meet the linguistic rigor necessary for a true language. With limited sight and sense of smell in water, marine mammals are more dependent on sound—which travels four times faster in water than air—to communicate. For six months each year, all male humpback whales in a population sing the same song during mating season. Thought to attract females, the song evolves over time. Suzuki and co-authors John Buck and Peter Tyack applied the tools of information theory—a mathematical study of data encoding and transmission—to analyze the complex patterns of moans, cries, and chirps in the whales' songs for clues to the information being conveyed. Buck is an electrical engineer who specializes in signal processing and underwater acoustics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and Tyack is a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. © 2006 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Hearing; Language
Link ID: 8681 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A 24-year-old Norfolk woman hopes to be among the first British patients to overcome a severe stammer by using a special electronic device. Heidi King is volunteering for the treatment in New York, the British Stammering Association (BSA) said. BSA chief executive Norbert Lieckfeldt said the device, like a hi-tech hearing aid, would be fitted in her inner ear. It then mimics the user's voice after research showed stammerers are helped by speaking in unison with others. Test revealed singing or saying the same words together - the so-called "choral effect" - can help people stop stammering. The phenomenon was first identified in the 1950s and the earpiece would convert the way Heidi, from Norwich, hears her own voice into a chorus-like sound. The device, called SpeechEasy, is not available in the UK and is not funded by the National Health Service. On Monday Miss King said she needed to raise about £5,000 to cover the costs of her treatment and the three weeks she would need to stay in New York. (C)BBC

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 8680 - Posted: 03.21.2006

The image of a twitchy nervous liar touching his nose and stroking his hair may itself be a lie, a study says. Italian and British researchers found when people lied they tended to stay still as they were acutely aware their body language might give them away. The team monitored 130 volunteers as they were asked to make a series of honest and dishonest statements. The study, in Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour, found liars touched their noses 20% less than truth tellers. Psychologist Dr Samantha Mann, who co-authored the study, said there was a popular perception that when people lie they scratch their nose and play with their hair more. These movements are known as self-adaptor gestures which serve to comfort a person feeling vulnerable or exposed. Instead of giving into these urges, she claimed, liars tried very hard to stay still and were just as likely as an honest person to look the questioner in the eye. She added: "People expect liars to be nervous and shifty and to fidget more, but our research shows that is not the case. "People who are lying have to think harder, and when we think harder we tend to be a lot stiller, with fewer movements, because we are concentrating harder." She added: "As soon as we know that we are lying we suddenly become very aware of our behaviour. Most people tend to refrain from making movements at all." The team from the universities of Portsmouth and Bergamo in Italy, also looked for changes in seven categories of hand gestures in their volunteers. They found liars literally went to huge lengths to cover their tracks, especially when they were challenged over whether they were telling the truth. Those under strong suspicion used certain types of hand gestures more in order reinforce the point. (C)BBC

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 8679 - Posted: 03.21.2006

By Sandra G. Boodman The pocket-watch-sized device is billed as "a pacemaker for the brain," the newest cutting-edge treatment for as many as 4 million adults whose severe depression is not relieved by psychotherapy, drugs or even shock treatments. Since its approval under unusual circumstances eight months ago by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), more than 550 Americans have undergone surgery to have a vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) implanted in their chests to activate parts of their brains. Another 7,000 people -- aided by a network of nurses hired by Cyberonics, the Houston-based manufacturer of the device -- are seeking approval from their insurance companies for the $25,000 operation. More than 3,700 psychiatrists, including doctors affiliated with Suburban, Georgetown, Sheppard Pratt and Howard University hospitals, have been trained in the use of VNS, the first device ever approved to treat depression. It consists of a battery-operated generator attached to an electrode implanted in the vagus nerve in the neck. The generator emits regular pulses of electricity that are supposed to stimulate serotonin and other brain chemicals believed to regulate mood, according to Cyberonics. Yet despite the imprimatur of the FDA and an aggressive marketing campaign mounted by the company, the most basic question about the treatment remains unanswered: Does it work? Is VNS a lifesaving treatment for chronic depression, as some patients and doctors maintain, or an unproven and potentially harmful treatment based on flimsy science, as critics contend? © 2006 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 8678 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Matt McMillen From the start of their marriage, Jeremy Gaylord had a habit of walking away from his wife, Nancy, while she was in mid-sentence. That annoyed her. But when he also did it to people at parties, she took action. "I'd slam my foot down on his to keep him from drifting off," she recalled, laughing, in a recent phone interview from the couple's home in Bridgewater, Vt. Nancy thought he was just plain rude. Five years ago, she learned there was another possible explanation: attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. When Jeremy's attention wandered, he did, too. Just about everyone occasionally zones out, procrastinates or speaks and acts without thinking. But for those with ADHD -- including many who don't know they have the disorder -- such experiences are more frequent, intense and disruptive, said Tom Brown, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale University and author of "Attention Deficit Disorder in Children and Adults" (Yale University Press, 2005). All of which can be hard on a relationship -- especially a committed one. It's not that people with ADHD don't inspire love or affection. "There are likable, lovable sides to ADHD, " said Brown. People with the disorder are often "spontaneous, funny as hell, and bring a fresh view on things to a relationship." It's just that their admirers generally have to balance these traits with a few exasperating ones. © 2006 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 8677 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By BENEDICT CAREY The only responsible way to manage schizophrenia, most psychiatrists have long insisted, is to treat its symptoms when they first surface with antipsychotic drugs, which help dissolve hallucinations and quiet imaginary voices. Benedict Carey will answer reader questions about this article. E-mail your questions to askscience@nytimes.com. His answers will be posted at nytimes.com/science on Friday. Delaying treatment, some researchers say, may damage the brain. But a report appearing next month in one of the field's premier journals suggests that when some people first develop psychosis they can function without medication — or with far less than is typically prescribed — as well as they can with the drugs. And the long-term advantage of treating first psychotic episodes with antipsychotics, the report found, was not clear. The analysis, based on a review of six studies carried out from 1959 to 2003, exposes deep divisions in the field that are rarely discussed in public. In the last two decades, psychiatrists have been treating people with antipsychotic drugs earlier and more aggressively than ever before, even testing the medications to prevent psychosis in high-risk adolescents. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 8676 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Constance Holden Only about two-thirds of depressed people feel better from taking antidepressant medication. Currently, doctors have no way of knowing who is likely to benefit from what drug. But now researchers have identified a gene variant that appears to enhance the odds of benefiting from antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). It's "a step on the road to true personalized medicine," says co-author Dennis Charney, psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. The findings could also help explain why blacks appear to respond less than whites to antidepressants, says the lead author, psychiatrist Francis McMahon of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. The beneficial gene variant--for a type of serotonin receptor--is far more common in whites than in blacks. McMahon and colleagues analyzed DNA samples from 1953 patients diagnosed with major depression who were being treated with the SSRI citalopram (Celexa). The patients were part of the largest-ever clinical trial for depression, called STAR*D. To scout out genes that might be associated with treatment response, they looked at 768 markers on 68 candidate genes. SSRIs act on the neurons that send out serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects many things including mood and circadian rhythms. These antidepressants, which often have fewer side effects than others, prevent transmitting preventing neurons from soaking up unused serotonin, thus giving the serotonin neurotransmitter more time in the synapse to exert an effect. SSRIs also indirectly down-regulate the 2A receptor on postsynaptic (receiving) neurons, which is also necessary for the drugs to work. © 2006 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Depression; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8675 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Work reported this week provides new evidence that marsupials, like primates, have functional color vision based on three different types of color photoreceptor cones--but unlike primates, a component of marsupial color vision includes sensitivity to ultraviolet wavelengths. In the study, researchers employed behavioral tests to show that at least one type of marsupial uses its detection of UV light as part of its ability to discriminate between colors. The new work is reported by a group including Dr. Catherine Arrese of the University of Western Australia and appears in the March 21st issue of Current Biology. The most prevalent system of color vision in mammals is known as dichromacy, which is a color-detection system based on two types of cone photoreceptors--those sensitive to short (SWS) and medium-to-long (M/LWS) wavelengths. Trichromacy, which is used by humans, was thought to be unique to primates that have re-evolved a third cone type from the duplication of the MWS/LWS gene, which enables the discrimination of green-red colors. But the researchers' previous physiological studies in Australian marsupials provided original evidence for the potential of trichromatic color vision in mammals other than primates. The findings were consistent in several distantly related marsupial species, indicating that the presence of three spectrally distinct cone types, sensitive to short (SWS), medium (MWS), and long (LWS) wavelengths, is a common feature of Australian marsupials. However, since evidence of color vision cannot be derived from physiological studies alone, marsupial trichromacy remained to be established with an unequivocal behavioural approach.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 8674 - Posted: 03.21.2006

A research team at Uppsala University, Sweden has shown in a new study, published in the journal Acta Zoologica, that the size of the spot on a male collared flycatcher's forehead reflects how well the immune defence system combats viruses such as avian influenza. The white spot is also attractive to female birds searching for a mate. Evolutionary biologists have long attempted to explain why individuals of a species differ in appearance and why the choice of a mate is influenced by behaviour and appearance features that cannot reasonably be thought to have any usefulness. Therefore, they have begun to look more and more at the genetics behind what are called secondary sexual characters, such as the tail of a peacock, the stripes of the female gulf pipefish, and the white spot on the forehead of the collared flycatcher. In many species both males and females prefer to mate with those who have the largest or most colourful of these ornaments or who have the most complex song, for instance. One theory says that the ornaments are clearest on individuals that are in good health and that both the size and the condition of the ornament are heritable. This leads to the question of why evolution did not select the same appearance and good health for all individuals. Is there something in the environment that is constantly changing and can govern the genetics of appearance and health, leading, instead, to diversity?

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 8673 - Posted: 03.21.2006

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Diving beetles engage in such exhausting, uncomfortable sex that these insects have actually evolved two different types of females, as well as unusual variations among males, according to a new study. The find adds to the growing body of evidence that sexual conflict between males and females influences evolution. In many cases, individuals over time develop characteristics that are appealing to the opposite sex. For diving beetles, however, researchers believe females have tried to avoid the painful sex for so long that some have actually evolved a feature that enables them to spurn most suitors. The result is that the insect family Dytiscidae includes species, such as the diving beetles Dytiscus lapponicus and Graphoderus zonatus verrucifer, which each have two distinct types of females. D. lapponicus has females with smooth and furrowed backs, while G.z. verrucifer has females with smooth and granulated backs. The furrows and granulation allow these types to avoid frequent sex with males, which grab onto the females with suction-cupped feet. Findings are published in the current issue of The American Naturalist. © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 8672 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A version of a gene previously linked to impulsive violence appears to weaken brain circuits that regulate impulses, emotional memory and thinking in humans, researchers at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have found. Brain scans revealed that people with this version – especially males – tended to have relatively smaller emotion-related brain structures, a hyperactive alarm center and under-active impulse control circuitry. The study identifies neural mechanisms by which this gene likely contributes to risk for violent and impulsive behavior through effects on the developing brain. NIMH intramural researchers Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, M.D., Daniel Weinberger, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues report on their magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of March 20, 2006. "These new findings illustrate the breathtaking power of 'imaging genomics' to study the brain's workings in a way that helps us to understand the circuitry underlying diversity in human temperament," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., who conducted MRI studies earlier in his career. "By itself, this gene is likely to contribute only a small amount of risk in interaction with other genetic and psychosocial influences; it won't make people violent," explained Meyer-Lindenberg. "But by studying its effects in a large sample of normal people, we were able to see how this gene variant biases the brain toward impulsive, aggressive behavior."

Keyword: Aggression; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8671 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Roxanne Khamsi Love's arrow may have helped Cupid's match-making, but it was never slathered in mucous. Yet to double their chances of paternity, some male snails fire slimy darts at their would-be female mates. “Snails that hit their partners with a dart are able to father more babies,” explains Ronald Chase of McGill University in Montreal. The so-called love darts are wielded by a number of molluscs, including the brown garden snail (Cantareus aspersus) where it sits on the right side of its body, adjacent to a mucus-producing gland. A male snail passes approximately 5.5 million sperm to its partner in a single mating, Chase says. But he adds that only about 1400 sperm of these millions survive the attacks of enzymes, which digest the sperm within the female. Furthermore, snails mate promiscuously, so one sperm donation does not ensure fatherhood. Chase and colleague Katrina Blanchard set up an experiment to test the idea that pricking a mate with a dart raises a male's chances of siring offspring. This involved 38 female brown garden snails, each paired with two male partners that had each had their darts surgically removed – the darts take a week to grow back. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8670 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Matcheri S. Keshavan, MD It was not too long ago that the management of schizophrenia was generally viewed as pessimistic, and focused primarily on symptom relief. Over the past two decades, there has been a paradigm shift in our approach to the overall management of schizophrenia, toward preventive and early interventions. These approaches are being increasingly guided by recent pathophysiological models. In particular, it has become clear that neurobiological alterations are seen before onset of the illness (the premorbid phase) (Johnstone et al., 2002) and may progress during the early stages of the illness (the prodromal phase). Further deterioration in brain structure and function may appear in some cases after characteristic symptoms of the illness begin (the psychotic phase), especially during the initial years. These observations suggest a critical window of opportunity, early in the illness, to effect lasting modifications in overall illness course (Keshavan et al., 2005a). The three key questions for the field are: Can schizophrenia be prevented in those at risk for the disorder (primary prevention)? Can the first episode of psychosis be prevented in patients experiencing the prodromal phase of the illness (secondary prevention)? Can we prevent relapses and further functional decline in patients who have already experienced the first episode of psychosis (tertiary prevention)? Copyright © 2006 CMP Healthcare Media Group LLC,

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 8669 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Shankar Vedantam When Wayne Kanuch received a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in 1993, the last thing he imagined was that the drug prescribed to treat his illness would turn him into a compulsive gambler and put his libido into overdrive. Kanuch's marriage ended in divorce, partly as a result of the sexual pressures he placed on his wife, and he began losing fortunes at the racetrack. He was fired from his job at Chevron for trolling for dates on the Internet while at work, and he quickly went bankrupt. "I contemplated suicide a couple of times," he said in an interview last week. "Everyone was blaming me, and I was looking at the mirror and blaming myself and asking why I could not stop." New evidence unearthed by scientists at the Food and Drug Administration, Duke University and other centers suggest the reason Kanuch could not stop is that the drug being used to treat Parkinson's boosted the level of dopamine in his brain. Researchers are looking into the possibility that dopamine, which is associated with a host of addictive behaviors, may turn some Parkinson's patients into obsessive pleasure seekers. © 2006 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Parkinsons; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8668 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Ben Harder Ansel Adams once called his photography of the nation's parklands a "blazing poetry of the real." If scientific data were verse, that description would also fit Chad Moore's pictures. Taken in dozens of national parks, mostly in the western United States, Moore's images emphasize contrast, horizon, and sky. But they aren't imitations of Adams' art. In the name of science, Moore photographs the darkness, but his subject may be in peril. Moore's data demonstrate that artificial light from urban areas penetrates deep into some of America's most remote, wild places. For species and ecosystems that have evolved with a nightly quota of darkness, light pollution can be a force of ecological disruption, other research has suggested. With the new images, ecologists can identify geographic areas where sensitive species are most likely to be affected. The inventory of images also provides a reference point for measuring future changes in light pollution, Moore says. Most of this light originates in cities as illumination from buildings and streets. Light reflects off moisture and dust in the air, creating "sky glow," says ecologist Travis Longcore of the Urban Wildlands Group in Los Angeles. In some places, it obscures the starlight. Copyright ©2006 Science Service.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 8667 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Losing sleep can interfere with the part of the brain responsible for finding your way round, a study says. US researchers found rats that were deprived of sleep had difficulty navigating a maze. Restricting sleep interfered with the rats' spatial memory - responsible for recording information about the surrounding environment, the team said. But UK experts were divided over the findings published in the Journal of Neurophysiology. Spatial memory is essential for rats and humans to remember familiar environments, people use it to find their way round a city, while it is used by rats in hunting for food. The team took two groups of rats, putting one in a water maze where they could not see or smell the exit. The rats were repeatedly put in the maze again once they had slept with some being allowed to sleep for six hours longer than others. Researchers found the rats which had more sleep produced more cells in the hippocampus part of the brain, which is responsible for spatial learning as it is in humans, and were better at finding their way out. The second group were also put in a maze, but were allowed to see and smell the exit - the door was scented with citrus - which was moved every fourth trial. In this group, the sleep deprived rats performed better. The researchers said this was unexpected and suggested the sleep deprived rats were quicker to use their senses because their spatial learning was impaired. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sleep; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 8666 - Posted: 03.18.2006